Donald Trump urged nations of what he called the Indo-Pacific region to enter into fair and reciprocal economic relationships with America, insisting in a speech at the Apec summit that the US would no longer tolerate “chronic trade abuses”.
Speaking in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang at the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, Mr Trump praised many countries in the region for achieving “tremendous” economic success in recent decades. But he resurrected many of the hard-edged trade themes of his presidential campaign in declaring that the US had been treated unfairly by the world.
“I will make bilateral trade agreements with any Indo-Pacific nation that wants to be our partner and will abide by the principles of fair and reciprocal trade,” Mr Trump said in a speech that received little applause.