The APEC summit was largely overshadowed by a major side meeting between Trump and Xi, during which they agreed to halt a damaging trade dispute that has exposed the fragility of key supply chains.
Beijing had threatened to exercise its monopoly over rare earth mining and processing by imposing sweeping new export controls on the industry, in retaliation for the United States imposing tariffs and throttling China’s access to high-tech chips and software.
Canadian leader Mark Carney struck the darkest tone at the summit, using a speech to APEC business leaders to declare that the world of expanding “liberalized, rules-based trade and investment… is gone.”
In the face of Trump’s threats to impose additional tariffs on Canada’s economy, Carney called on other countries to boost their trade ties, saying his government was charting a new course “to double our non-U.S. exports over the course of the next decade.”
With Trump absent from the two-day meeting, Xi took advantage of the void to position China as a defender of free trade rules and an alternative to the United States as a stable and reliable trading partner.
In a speech at the summit on Saturday, Xi also called for a global body to govern the development of artificial intelligence to ensure it serves as a “public good for the international community.”
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