Peru president, Apec host, warns of threats to free trade

Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski speaks during a meeting with the president of the foreign trade company of Peru, Jose Luis Noriega, during the closing ceremony of APEC SME Summit in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC are meeting in Lima this week. AP

LIMA, Peru  — The U.S. presidential election is a sign of growing hostility to free trade that threatens the global economy, the president of Peru warned Friday as he opened an Asian-Pacific summit hosted by his nation.

READ: Trump’s future role looms over Apec summit in Peru

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski told delegates gathering in Lima for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum that global trade already stopped growing in the last two years and would get much worse if nations close off their economies.

“It is fundamental that world trade grow again and that protectionism be defeated,” Kuczynski said.

The Peruvian president cited the recent U.S. election, though he did not specifically mention U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pledged to overhaul the country’s trade policy and tear up trade agreements such as NAFTA or the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Kuczynski, a U.S.-trained economist and former investment fund manager who took office this year, also cited the vote in June by Britain to leave the European Union as evidence that “protectionist tendencies are taking over” in the world.

“And for anyone who wants to promote protection I suggest they read an economic history of the 1930s,” he said, a reference to the Great Depression that many argue was aggravated by protectionist policies.

APEC has brought more than 1,000 delegates from 21 countries, representing nearly 40 percent of the world’s population, to Lima for a forum aimed at easing global commerce. U.S. President Barack Obama was expected to arrive late Friday for his last international summit before leaving office in January. Also expected were Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

READ: Duterte in Peru for Apec; to meet Putin, Xi

Obama had been expected to promote the TPP, which would have included 12 members of APEC but not China, but that trade pact is now considered politically dead because of Trump’s victory. The Chinese president is expected to see support for an alternate agreement backed by his country. TVJ