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22:29, 21-May-2017
APEC trade ministers discuss TPP, Belt & Road in Hanoi
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Trade ministers from the APEC economies met for a second day on Sunday in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Two of the biggest topics on the agenda were the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Belt and Road Initiative, as CGTN's Calum Stuart reports.
The Belt and Road Initiative has been heavily promoted by China as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. However, many APEC delegates also maintain that the TPP, which seemed near collapse when President Donald Trump pulled the US out of it in January, could be salvageable.
For countries such as Vietnam, tipped to be major beneficiaries of the TPP, US involvement was vital to achieving global integration and economic growth. It is now very keen to secure as many partnerships as it can with whomever it can.
Still, trade talks with China are still very much in their infancy and have to be balanced against issues such as regional security and geopolitical divisions between China and its neighbors in Southeast Asia. These topics have weighed heavily on past discussions, and are likely to continue as significant issues.