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The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) is being held with the United States as host, with the eyes of global markets focused on an event that will take place outside the agenda: the face-to-face meeting between the president Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, at an executive dinner in which the tense relationship between the two powers is expected to become warmer, after months of accusations.
The two most important economies in the world draw attention to the financial event, which also brings together 19 other financial powers that together will seek to promote trade, investment and development among nations around the Pacific Ocean.
Created in 1989, with 12 members, APEC’s growth has not stopped and today it hosts 21 of the strongest economies on the planet.
Between them, almost 60% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accumulates and global trade data is close to half of the global total.
These are economies, and not countries, among its members, since among them is the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong, and Taiwan, an island that functions independently, with its own government and Army, but that China claims as its own. .
They are joined by other territories in Asia and Asia-Pacific, such as Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. From the American continent and with the United States at the head, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Peru are also included.
However, although so much power and money is concentrated in a single block, the truth is that the Forum’s scope is limited. APEC’s approach focuses solely on economic and trade terms, does not have a military component and does not develop solutions for a world experiencing a recent war in Europe and the deadliest outbreak of war so far in the Middle East.
In the end, APEC’s strength lies in its ability to get its members to work together on big initiatives to facilitate trade relations, but without binding agreements such as reducing tariffs or removing barriers to shipping goods around the world. .
A long-awaited face to face
The meeting of the leaders of the United States and China, which will take place on Wednesday, November 15, will have, on the one hand, a self-proclaimed hero of the working class and defender of democracy, while receiving criticism for his age and development of the economy, ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
On the other side, an enigmatic leader, born into the Chinese political elite, who is building authoritarian alliances around the world, even as his economy faces a slowdown and reports of stagnation that worry analysts around the world.
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Both heads of state had not seen each other since November 14, 2022 when they had a small rapprochement within the framework of the G20 summit in Bali, but the meeting also breaks the six years in which the Chinese president did not visit the United States.
Given this panorama, markets around the world and the political sphere in East and West are waiting for what may come out of the talk.
Prior to this meeting, high-level officials from both sides have worked hard to prepare the ground. Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen discussed with her counterpart the outlook for the bilateral relationship, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did the same with her Chinese counterpart. .
Vice Premier He Lifeng and I finished two days of meetings. In-person diplomacy between the US and China is key to further stabilizing our economic relationship, addressing global issues, and communicating about the necessary steps we take to protect our national security. pic.twitter.com/RX3JZ6ZadL
—Secretary Janet Yellen (@SecYellen) November 10, 2023
Which represents efforts to thaw tensions, after at the beginning of the year the Biden Government shot down a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the territory of the United States, followed by the Xi Jinping Administration’s hacking of the Secretary of State’s emails. US trade and the restriction on the export of advanced computer chips from Washington to the Asian giant.
And some analysts highlight that a large part of global economic well-being would depend on this meeting, since, on the one hand, the world has been waiting for China’s full recovery after the blow it experienced due to the strict confinement of Covid-19. 19. On the other hand, the United States has had a difficult time dealing with inflation, risks of recession and a global debt that has reached historic levels.
In official figures, both countries accumulate bilateral trade that reaches almost 760 billion dollars, up to 2022, while the value of investments in physical and financial assets stood at 1.8 trillion dollars.
With AP and Reuters.
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