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Duterte Takes Swipe at US in Free Trade Call, Dismisses Human Rights Concerns

Duterte Takes Swipe at US in Free Trade Call, Dismisses Human Rights Concerns
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Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday took a swipe at the Trump administration's retreat from a major free trade deal, joining Asian nations at a forum this week in criticizing rising protectionism.

Duterte Takes Swipe at US in Free Trade Call, Dismisses Human Rights Concerns

Until recently China and the United States were both pushing sweeping free trade deals that excluded each other.

But shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] which he described as a "job killer".

The move delivered a hammer blow to the 11 other nations who spent seven years negotiating what was billed as the world's largest trade deal.

During a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] in Manila, Duterte gave his backing to a planned trade pact backed by China known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP].

"ASEAN has a bigger stake than any part of the world in standing up against protectionism and securing the rules of the game in the international trade," he told delegates.

RCEP, he said, "will provide further impetus to our efforts", adding he hoped negotiations on the Beijing-led deal "should conclude swiftly".

He then added a jab over TPP's collapse.

"[I'm] reminded that the Transpacific, it was a dream, is no longer there," he said.

Before Trump's withdrawal, TPP would have covered 40 percent of the global economy.

It went further than most existing free trade pacts, with labor laws, environmental protections and intellectual property rights touted by backers as a new gold standard for global trade.

The deal, which excluded China, was also seen as a way to counter Beijing's regional economic dominance.

In response to TPP, Beijing has been pushing RCEP, a more modest deal that prescribes lower and more limited regulatory standards.

The pact would group China with the 10 ASEAN members plus India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout the security forum of regional foreign ministers that ended on Tuesday, multiple countries voiced specific concerns about rising protectionism, including Japan, South Korea, China and the 10-member ASEAN bloc.

"Anti-globalization sentiments and protectionist threats, to just name a few, are gaining force in many parts of the world, fueling global economic and political uncertainty," South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha said during a meeting with her Japanese and Chinese counterparts on Sunday.

Also on Tuesday, and only hours after meeting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Duterte dismissed concerns about his country's human rights record.

Tillerson was in the Philippines for a major ASEAN summit as he tried to rally support for full implementation of new United Nations sanctions on North Korea.

Duterte's meeting with Tillerson came amid growing American support for his country's battle with a Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] affiliate that had attempted to seize territory within its borders and staged increasingly violent attacks.

Many consider his human rights record a source of controversy. He had often touted a violent, extrajudicial war on drugs that had killed thousands in the Philippines.

Tillerson's aides said he would raise human rights in the meeting, but the secretary of state had been criticized for a perceived lack of focus on these issues. Tillerson told US State Department employees in May that American values like human rights and democracy should take a back seat to national security and economic interests at times.

In the Philippines, the State Department had mostly stressed its concerns about the arrival of foreign Daesh militants from the Middle East and about the longtime US ally drifting closer to China and Russia.

The Duterte government had been struggling against a Daesh affiliate that seized control of the city Marawi on the country's southern island Mindanao in May of this year.

The US had also provided "some training and some guidance in terms of how to deal with an enemy that fights in ways that is not like what most people have ever had to deal with," Tillerson added.

Increased military cooperation with the Philippines could be seen by the US as a buffer against Russia and China's influence in the region after Duterte challenged his country's decades-old alliance with the US.

After touring two Russian warships Friday, Duterte said, "We welcome our Russian friends. Anytime you want to dock here for anything, for play, for replenish supplies or maybe our ally to protect us."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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