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The 47th ASEAN Summit and series of meetings were held from October 26 to 28. During this period, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Leaders 'Meeting was held again in Malaysia on the 27th after five years. On the 28th, China and ASEAN signed version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Upgrade Protocol in Kuala Lumpur, emphasizing support for multilateralism and free trade.
"China fills the gap of the United States at the ASEAN summit and promotes trade multilateralism," Reuters reported on the 27th that US President Trump briefly appeared at the ASEAN summit and continued to issue tariff threats; China, on the other hand, takes the lead in safeguarding free trade and opposing protectionism.
However, the European Union and Japan continue to hype “rare-earth poverty.”
European Council President Costa expressed "strong concern" about China's measures to control rare earth exports.
He told reporters during the summit: “We are very concerned about our trade relations with China, especially the recent measures China has taken ... we hope to address these issues in an appropriate way.”
Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed concern about the rare earth issue and questioned China's stance on safeguarding free trade.
"China has imposed export restrictions on rare earths, which has had a huge impact on the supply chain." Toshihiro Kitamura, the foreign affairs reporter of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then "fought for injustice" for the United States, slandering China for "trying to take advantage of the US tariff issue and pretending to be the guardian or defender of the free trade system."
After Trump announced the so-called "reciprocal tariff" in April, Japan was one of the first countries to negotiate with the United States. Despite several rounds of ministerial talks, it is difficult for Japan to bridge the contradiction with its main trading partner, the United States, and there are differences on issues such as automobiles and rice.
After five months of tough negotiations, Trump signed an executive order on September 4 to formally implement the trade agreement with Japan in July: The United States will impose a 15 percent benchmark tariff on almost all Japanese products entering the United States, while imposing specific treatments on specific industries such as automotive and automotive parts, aerospace products, replicas and natural resources that are not naturally available or produced in the U.S. mainland.
But the Japanese industry believes that the U.S. car tariff rate imposed under the latest agreement is lower than the current level (27.5%), but is still significantly higher than earlier this year, and is expected to impact Japanese exports.
It is worth noting that the executive order states that Japan has agreed to invest $55 billion in the United States, and the relevant investment will be "selected" by the United States.
Regarding the issue of rare earth export control, China has stated its position on many occasions. On October 21, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that China's recent measures are normal practices to improve China's export control system in accordance with laws and regulations, and reflect China's responsibility as a major country in maintaining world peace and stability. China is committed to maintaining the safety and stability of the global production and supply chain and has been providing approval convenience for EU companies.
On the 27th local time, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) Leaders' Meeting was held in Malaysia again after five years.
Following Trump’s hasty end to the 47th ASEAN Summit, leaders continue to consult in Kuala Lumpur to seek to build a new regional stability framework through RCEP and other multilateral cooperation mechanisms to counter trade protectionism risks.
The U.S. government has sent only two lower-level representatives to the meeting.
The RCEP agreement was initiated by 10 ASEAN countries and invited six dialogue partner countries: Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand to participate. In 2020, except India, the remaining 15 countries formally signed the agreement. RCEP is currently the world's largest trade agreement, accounting for about 30% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and is seen by some analysts as a "potential buffer" to deal with Trump's tariffs.
In his opening speech, host Prime Minister Anvar emphasized the importance of RCEP.
Anwar pointed out that this summit was held at a critical time, which made its importance more important than ever before. She said: "The result of our cooperation is to lay the foundation for lasting peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region."