The original goal of Apec, established in 1989, was to promote free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The US used it as a vehicle to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a trade agreement that included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.

Basically designed by the US, it was a deal that excluded China but now looks like it is falling apart after Trump pulled America out of the 12-nation agreement on Jan 23, his first full weekday in office as US president.

Pradumna Bickram Rana, however, believes that a TPP II is possible. “All 11 (remaining) countries have been conducting feasibility studies on it in the past few months,” said Rana, an associate professor and coordinator of the International Political Economy Programme at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.