The United States has just blocked China's effort on the Trade Pact in the Pacific that will be discussed in the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) with both countries battling for influence over the Asian region.

China will be hosting the APEC summit this year and Chinese officials wanted to highlight the expansion of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in to develop China's international role.

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Beijing has been pushing the FTAAP for years that the U.S. initially supported. However, the Trade Pact has not been a U.S. priority since it tackled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in which 11 nations are included except China.

Alan Bollard, the executive director of APEC, said China wants to reinvigorate FTAAP and will include 21 economies during summit discussions from November 10 to 11. This will be the first ever major international conference ever since Beijing's Communist Party chief Xi Jinping took office.

The FTAAP would offer Beijing a way to ensure China would continue to have access to their largest trading partners. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the TPP will be costing China US$100 billion annually, while losing exports from their partners who are part of the said partnership.

However, the U.S. has pressured Beijing to drop two of its provisions in the draft they have sent to APEC. The draft is supposed to be released by the end of the session of the leaders' summit. China has stated that there will no longer be feasibility studies regarding the FTAAP and they also were not able to set a target date for the said deal.

According to Fred Bergsten, also from the Peterson Institute, a parallel process, in reference to the FTAAP, might affect the TPP, which has been stalled for many reasons such as handling state-owned enterprises and Japan's agricultural subsidies.

Despite the effort of the U.S. to block the FTAAP, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last Thursday that the APEC summit will still tackled the said trade so as to consolidate various trade pacts.

TagsInternational trade, international relations, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, International Economics