John Armstrong: No stealing star's limelight

John Armstrong. Photo / Supplied

For all the talk about small countries like New Zealand punching above their weight at international forums like Apec, when push comes to shove those in the heavyweight class still do the pushing and shoving.

This year's Apec summit in Singapore only reinforced that truism.

From the dilly-dallying by the Asia-Pacific leaders over whether to wear their special Apec shirts in Barack Obama's absence to China's watering down of the final communique's statement on climate change to the United States-driven revitalisation of Apec's trade liberalisation agenda, this year's leaders' meeting vividly demonstrated who really has the clout and who hasn't.

The global financial downturn may have battered the American economy. The Asian economies may have escaped unscathed. With the obvious exception of China, however, Apec's Asian members have yet to translate any shift in economic power in their favour into displays of collective political muscle on the world stage.

While frustrated by the drift in Washington's attention away from their region in recent years, they timidly expected the US to still call the shots.

Faced with their pleas to reveal his hand on trade, like any good poker player, the American President waited until almost the last minute, thereby generating even more applause when he did.

His only concessions were to make the official dinner on Saturday night when it was thought he would miss it, wearing the mandarin-collared leaders' shirt and experiencing the dreadful Singapore Experience song and dance show, which, according to the publicity material, was inspired by "the spirit of co-operation and cohesion that unites Apec members".

It might be seen as a pity such co-operation did not extend to climate change. The end-of-summit communique backed away from a target of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 following pressure from China on Singapore, which as host country, chaired Apec.

The leaders instead ended up vowing to work for an "ambitious outcome" at next month's Copenhagen talks.

Such nebulous language exposes Apec's ineffectiveness as an international forum. However, given Apec's members include a fair chunk of the major industrialised and industrialising economies, it is no surprise Apec failed to display leadership on that matter.

Although there is an obvious link between climate change policy and ensuring economic sustainability, Apec's primary objective is to break down barriers to economic growth.

The big question is whether America's "reconnection" with Asia in the form of Obama's plan for a mega-sized free trade area spanning the region revitalises Apec or ends up simply bypassing Apec altogether.

Although many of the economies that will want to sign up are Apec members, it is not clear exactly what role Apec will play in developing Obama's grand vision.

The communique tentatively talks about exploiting "building blocks" for a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific and recognises the "significant economic benefits", but shows little urgency in making progress.

A rejigging of Apec's role will likely have to await America's chairing of the forum in 2011 following Japan's tenure next year.

In the meantime, free trade hawks like New Zealand have enough to be getting on with.

This country's sense of urgency was demonstrated in the rapid convening of an official meeting to map out negotiations for turning the four-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact - of which New Zealand is a founding member - into an eight-country network which includes the US.

That the TPP will be used by the US as a stepping zone towards realising Obama's big dream is tribute to New Zealand diplomats' foresight in cleverly positioning it as a potential back door means of securing what will effectively be a free trade agreement with the US.

For the Prime Minister, Obama's announcement was quite simply the difference between John Key's Apec being a big success or a major disappointment.

While he is being rewarded with an early trip to the White House, for helping the Americans on trade and sending troops to Afghanistan, Key got a blunt reminder of New Zealand's true place in the bigger scheme of things. His list of bilateral meetings with other Apec leaders - described as diplomacy's version of speed dating - was completely devoid of Apec's big guns.

But then Apec has its pecking order - and that's that.