Trump-Xi meeting looms over APEC conference in South Korea as free trade falters

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea this week will host leaders from major Pacific Rim economies, including the United States, China and Japan, for an annual summit that has long championed free trade.

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But this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings come as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to send shock waves around the world with his sweeping tariffs and other measures upending the postwar global trade order, unsettling both allies and rivals.

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The multilateral gathering in Gyeongju is expected to be overshadowed by a sideline event — a face-to-face meeting on Thursday between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping — as their intensifying trade war leaves the South Korean hosts in a difficult balancing act.

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Here’s look at this year’s APEC meeting:

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APEC’s makeup

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Established in 1989 as a 12-member forum to promote free trade and economic cooperation, APEC now has 21 members, including the United States, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and Russia. The members wield significant collective weight, accounting for 37% of the world’s population and more than half of global trade in goods as of 2024, according to South Korean government data.

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Each year, one of APEC’s members hosts the annual leaders’ meeting, serving as its chair. A flurry of high-level bilateral meetings typically take place on the sidelines of APEC’s main conference, underscoring the forum’s role as a platform for dialogue and cooperation.

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This year’s summit will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 in the southern city of Gyeongju, a cultural hub home to three UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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APEC has a narrow focus limited to trade and economic issues and has no military component. Still, experts say APEC’s strength is its ability to bring together countries that might otherwise compete aggressively or even clash, enabling collaboration on major initiatives, though without binding agreements.

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In the buildup to the summit, members hold a series of ministerial and other meetings to discuss practical cooperation on various issues, and economists have credited the forum with helping reduce tariffs and other trade barriers in past years.

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“While APEC is inherently a loose organization and has its limitations, it has carried symbolic significance as all the leaders come together, and even if discussions were somewhat vague, they could still gain influence over time,” said Kim Tae-hyung, a professor at Seoul’s Soongsil University. “But the atmosphere is completely different this year and we might not see the usual range of discussions or topics that were often addressed at the forum.”

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Different landscape in 2025

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Having last chaired APEC in 2005, during the height of postwar globalization, South Korea now faces a far trickier challenge as host, navigating a trade landscape transformed in the months since Trump returned to the White House.

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Long shaped by the United States and its allies promoting free trade and multilateralism, the forum now faces a stark contrast under Trump, whose steep tariffs and unilateral trade measures have shaken its closest allies.