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A scaffold holding Asia-Pacific together

Fresh leadership brought an explicit climate lens to Apec, and proved that small powers still matter.

AP Dr Shiro Armstrong is a director of the AustraliaJapan Research Centre and the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research; as well as associate professor at the Crawford School at the Australian National University.

Leaders of the 21 Apec economies met virtually on November 12 and made progress on some of the biggest economic challenges facing the world: climate change and pandemic recovery. There was also agreement to defend the multilateral trading system – the scaffolding that holds together the global economy.

The Apec summit chaired by New Zealand came at the end of a busy summit season for leaders: it was on the heels of the Rome G20 meeting, the Glasgow COP26 summit, and before that the East Asia Summit hosted virtually by Brunei. Its time in the headlines was further squeezed by the sudden announcement of a virtual bilateral summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping days later – the first since Biden took office.

It would be easy to dismiss the nonbinding economic forum in the Asia Pacific between these major events that command the attention of the world, but that would miss the important and enduring contribution that Apec makes.

Chaired by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, this year’s Apec summit introduced an explicit climate change lens that had not existed previously. The leaders committed to stop the increase in fossil fuel subsidies – even as countries look to boost economic recovery from the pandemicinduced recession – and facilitate trade in environmentally friendly goods and technology.

There was also agreement to boost Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing and supply. Similar pledges have been made in the Quad summit between Australia, India, Japan and the United States, and in the G20 grouping, and they all need to be put into action. Apec has a track record of delivery through practical steps and here the

agreement to facilitate this through the transfer of technology, and elimination of export restrictions on medical goods goes further. As will the agreement to co-operate on Covid-19 testing and vaccine passports – important for kick-starting people movement as borders reopen.

Commitments on shared challenges backed up by step-by-step practical economic co-operation in the Asia Pacific reinforces multilateral action and contributes to the management of strategic and geopolitical issues. Given the biggest geopolitical fault line globally is between China and the United States, collaborative progress in the Asia Pacific is essential to resolving global challenges.

Global co-operation has become much harder with strategic competition between China and the US. Producing a non-binding Apec leaders’ statement is no longer an easy outcome that is automatically guaranteed, after hosts Papua New Guinea failed to in 2018. And the G20 has been totally missing in action during the pandemic.

With China and the United States locked in strategic competition, small and middle powers need to work in coalition to protect their interests and shape the behaviour of the major powers. Coalitions of small and middle powers can make a difference and that’s where groupings such as Apec present a crucial opportunity. Chinese exercise of raw economic muscle against Australia has seen other countries get behind Australia’s pushback in the WTO against China, even as China becomes a more important trading partner for almost every country.

The Vietnam Apec Summit in 2017 saw concerted pushback against former US President Donald Trump. German Chancellor Angela Merkel helped hold the line on multilateralism in 2018 in the G7 in Canada. It’s not just at summits but the collective actions that help to hold the line. Auckland’s Apec success helps promote multilateralism and Apec can make progress where the G20 can’t.

Apec’s lead on economic co-operation will be crucial to the global response as the pandemic recovery plays out uncertainly across the world. The foundations laid in the New Zealand Apec meetings offer the glimmer of real hope for better outcomes than we might otherwise expect.

Apec 2021

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2021-11-21T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-21T08:00:00.0000000Z

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