Prime Minister John Key makes a fleeting trip to Peru this weekend to attend the annual APEC leaders' summit, having cut from his schedule a two-day trade mission to Argentina en route after Monday's earthquakes required him to stay in New Zealand. There is no credible path for its passage through the US Congress in the lame-duck period following the election last week of Donald Trump as the next US president, on a protectionist agenda. Late last week, Chinese president Xi Jinping began talking up the prospects of a new Pacific area free-trade agreement that could exclude the US. "We have always thought the pathways were TPP, or possibly RCEP plus other things, and now we have to rethink some of that," APEC executive director Alan Bollard was reported as saying this week. At this stage, Mr Key is expecting numerous bilateral meetings, including with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull, the Peruvian and Chilean presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczyski and Michelle Bachelet respectively, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 17, 2016 04:59 UTC