Trudeau’s visit to APEC region aimed to strengthen trade ties

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tour of Southeast Asia includes a brief stop in Bangkok, which is a visit aimed at showing Canada is serious about forming deeper ties with the region.

The two-day visit to Thailand is for Trudeau to take part in the leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, a group of 21 economies on both sides of the Pacific that work together to break down barriers to trade.

“Showing up is critically important. In Asia in particular, face-to-face relationships are vitally important,” said Timothy Dattels, one of Canada’s three representatives to the APEC Business Advisory Council.

“Long-term relationship building is absolutely critical to business; it’s not all just done over the phone, at all,” said Dattels, an investor specializing in the region.

He noted that major players in the region have sent their heads of government and senior ministers to Bangkok.

Rather than listing countries as members, the APEC group consists of 21 economies that include the special administrative region of Hong Kong, which falls under Chinese control, and Taiwan, which some states, including China, do not recognize as a country.

The organization features a series of technical committees and working groups that advise policy leaders on how to make business flow more smoothly between different countries, such as standardizing how transactions are recorded or setting rules on data privacy and digital trade.

Instead of negotiating policy or signing agreements, the group aims to come up with suggestions on how to boost economic growth and make sure different sectors are in regular conversation.

Andrew Cooper, a professor with the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo, said the forum looms large for think tanks and business chambers, but not the general public.

“There’s a lot more technical kind of legalistic work. That’s important, but that’s not going to draw huge attention from the public,” he said.

He said that while APEC has paved the way for globalization and helped countries sort out the minutiae of red tape, it’s been less able to articulate broader priorities for the region.

Trudeau is attending the APEC leaders’ meeting as the Liberals gradually roll out an Indo-Pacific strategy, to form closer ties with certain countries spanning India to South Korea.

On Nov. 15, Trudeau met with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the ornate Government House in Bangkok.

While APEC focuses on sharing voluntary approaches to facilitating trade, the leaders’ summit might be hindered by their diverging views on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s growing assertiveness.

“How much can be achieved at a meeting like this will inevitably be affected by geopolitical factors,” Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada CEO Jeff Nankivell said in an interview before the meeting.

The question, he said, will be: “Is it possible to get consensus on outcomes documents in the current geopolitical context?”