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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><big><big><big><big><b>Shootout at the APEC
free-trade corral</b></big></big></big></big></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
By Pepe Escobar</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-081013.html">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-081013.html</a></small></small></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br>
What a photo - yet another instance of Bali working its magic. Chinese
President Xi Jinping leads a "Happy Birthday" for Russian President
Vladimir Putin, with Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono on acoustic
guitar.
You know who is not in the picture - he's in shutdown containment mode.
US
Think Tankland protestations notwithstanding, there could not be a more
graphic
reminder of the emerging multipolar order. <br>
<br>
And right on cue, the Creditor, somewhat alarmed, pointedly reminded
the
massive Debtor, via Chinese vice-finance minister Zhu Guangyao: "As the
world's largest economy and the issuer of the major reserve currency in
the
world, it is important for the US to maintain the creditworthiness of
its
Treasury bonds." [1] <br>
<br>
Translation; just as Asia-Pacific gathered to discuss the messier
points of
economic cooperation at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit in
Bali, what everybody was worried about is the scary possibility of the
US
government defaulting on its colossal debts next week. All this
interfered with
by a sideshow - the Return of the Extraordinary Rendition in Libya and
Navy
SEALS getting their butts kicked by a bunch of al-Shabaab jihadis in
Somalia,
more than enough to bury any coverage of the APEC summit by US
corporate media.
<br>
<br>
As <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-02-041013.html">predicted</a>,
China
was the star of the APEC show. It's never enough to remember that the
21-member APEC accounts for no less than half of the globe's economic
output
and trade. Xi insisted APEC should lead and coordinate the maze of free
trade
negotiations in Asia-Pacific. <br>
<br>
He also insisted that any trade agreement should be "inclusive" - as
in including China. Only then would it bear the requisite "win-win"
trademark; as if Xi needed to emphasize once more - as he did - that
China is
the biggest trading partner and export market for virtually every
Asia-Pacific
nation. <br>
<br>
<b>Behold the "Diamond Decade"</b><br>
The ongoing blockbuster in Asia-Pacific is the clash of the FTAs; there
are a dizzying,
over 100 competing free-trade agreements currently in play.
Negotiations at the
World Trade Organization are, to put it mildly, a mess. So a lot of
players
resort to bilateral and somewhat multilateral FTAs. Overall, the top
contenders
are the 16-nation, ASEAN-led Comprehensive Economic Partnership (which
includes
China) and the 12-nation, US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which
excludes China.. <br>
<br>
Xi stressed over and over again that China favors one FTA to cover all
of the
Asia-Pacific. And as far as Beijing is concerned, that won't be TPP -
which is
essentially a major US corporate racket that will lower tariffs across
the
spectrum to the sole benefit of US multinationals and not small and
medium-sized firms in developing countries, all this under the cover of
a dodgy
"highest free trade standard". <br>
<br>
China essentially wants APEC to put order in the court. Obama has been
too busy
pivoting to himself instead of pivoting to Asia, more specifically
Bali, to
offer his spin - but the fact is Washington wants to ram up a TPP over
its
"partners" under a tight deadline, the end of 2013, glossing over key
"devil in the details" discussions over market access (sweet if
you're a corporate behemoth) and intellectual property (corporate
behemoths
marketizing everything). <br>
<br>
It gets curioser and curioser when one is reminded that APEC at the
beginning
was very much a US Asia policy stalwart. I vividly remember covering
the APEC
summit in Bogor, Indonesia in 1994 - when an undisputed Bill Clinton
seemed to
be dictating the future of Asia-Pacific. That was a sort of "pivoting
to
Asia" before the fact - and totally under American terms. Then, after
the
pivoting was first announced by then US secretary of state Hillary
Clinton in
2011, she spun it as the dawn of "America's Pacific century". <br>
<br>
This "Pacific century" seems to boil down, so far, to enforcing an
already embattled TPP. Bantarto Bandoro, from the Indonesian Defense
University, seemed to get closer to the real picture when he told the
Jakarta
Globe, "this could be the beginning of the end of American global
dominance." <br>
<br>
While the verdict in this Shootout at the Free Trade Corral remains
open,
workaholic China proceeds. After its spectacular <a
href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-130913.html">New
Silk
Road successes</a> in Central Asia, Beijing has just proposed a - what
else is
new - Maritime Silk Road (MSR) in Southeast Asia, boosting trade
between China
and ASEAN. <br>
<br>
Once again, Xi was the messenger, in his current tour of Indonesia and
Malaysia; he beamed that the MSR would turn the "Golden Decade"
between China and ASEAN into a "Diamond Decade". China is the
10-member ASEAN's largest trading partner (over US$400 billion in
2012), with
mutual investment at over $100 billion and growing. Beijing sees this
coming
"Diamond Decade" as the bulk of the political/economic solution for
the so far intractable territorial problems in the South China Sea,
which pit
China against four ASEAN members; Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and
Brunei. <br>
<br>
Xi already embarked on a charm offensive in Malaysia, and it's unclear
what
Vietnam and the Philippines will make of this "Diamond Decade" when
there's so much unexplored, unassigned oil and gas to be found in the
South
China Sea. Yet once again, Beijing is playing the long game. The 2014
APEC
summit will be held - of all places - in Beijing. By then Obama may
have found
time to do some actual pivoting. And by then that may be too little,
too late. <br>
<br>
<b><i>Note:</i></b><br>
1. <a
href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-10/07/c_132777458.htm">China
urges
US to prevent debt default</a>, Xinhuanet, October 7, 2013. <br>
<br>
<b><i>Pepe Escobar</i></b><i> is the author of </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim">Globalistan:
How
the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> <i>(Nimble
Books,
2007), </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898">Red
Zone
Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a> <i>(Nimble Books,
2007),
and </i><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831">Obama
does
Globalistan</a> <i>(Nimble Books, 2009). <br>
<br>
He may be reached at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pepeasia@yahoo.com">pepeasia@yahoo.com</a>.</i><o:p></o:p></p>
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