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US President Barack Obama on Sunday defended free trade as fellow Asia-Pacific leaders vowed to fight protectionism after Donald Trump's shock election victory sparked fears for the future of global commerce.
Trump's triumph in this month's US presidential poll has raised concerns that years of rolling back trade barriers could be reversed after the populist billionaire vowed to tear up a series of key deals.
His victory overshadowed a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group held in Peru this week where leaders, including Obama, China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin, found themselves under fierce pressure to defend free trade.
Globalization and trade deals have been increasingly blamed in Europe and America for sending jobs abroad and eroding living standards, concerns reflected in both the election of Trump and Britain's "Brexit" vote in June to leave the European Union.
At the APEC gathering there was particular concern about the future of a major US-backed accord -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Trump has vowed to kill off -- and that China was positioning itself to forge ahead with its own trade deals and fill a vacuum left by any American withdrawal.
But after the summit closed on Sunday, Obama said that the 12-nation trans-Pacific deal, a key part of his much-vaunted "pivot" to Asia, was far from dead and those involved still wanted to move forward with the United States.
The president also insisted trade was positive as long as it was carried out in the right way and sought to answer rising concerns about globalization, conceding that "historic gains in prosperity" had not been evenly distributed.
"That can reverberate through our politics," he said.
"That's why I firmly believe one of our greatest challenges in the years ahead across our nations and within them will be to make sure that the benefits of the global economy are shared by more people."
And he sent a message to a world that is increasingly wary of globalization: "The answer is to do trade right."
(AFP)
