Donald Trump will travel to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea for the Apec and Asean summits. Will he meet Xi Jinping, and what tariff deals might be secured?
Donald Trump is about to embark on a tour of Asia that many hope will ease trade tensions with countries in the region and repair damaged ties with China. Trump will begin his trip on Sunday at a meeting of south-east Asian nations in Malaysia, before flying to Japan to meet its new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, early next week.
But the most important stop on his itinerary will come at the end of the month, when he is expected to discuss trade, and possibly Taiwan, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Apec summit in South Korea.
Trump is expected to meet Xi Jinping on Thursday next week, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. However, what they might talk about is generating more speculation than any other issue on the agenda at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, and Leavitt did not provide further details on Thursday night. There is a lot at stake, so pressure is building on both men to calm trade tensions that risk damaging the world’s two biggest economies.
Trump recently offered to lower tariffs on Chinese exports to the US but insisted that Beijing, too, had to make concessions, including resuming purchases of US soya beans, curbing the flow of ingredients used to make the opioid fentanyl – which has caused an overdose epidemic in America – and lifting restrictions on the export to the US of rare earth minerals, which are needed to manufacture hi-tech products such as smartphones.
