US President Donald Trump speaks on the final day of the APEC CEO Summit, part of the broader Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit, in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on Friday Nov. 10, 2017. World leaders and senior business figures are gathering in the Vietnamese city of Danang this week for the annual 21-member APEC summit. (Anthony Wallace, Pool via AP)
DANANG, Vietnam — President Donald Trump told attendees at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit Friday here that he won’t let the United States be “taken advantage of anymore” on trade, adding he’ll always “put America first.”
Trump said the United States “can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses.”
The president — who pulled the United States out of the Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership — said the U.S. would no longer join “large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”
After the APEC meetings Saturday, Trump will travel to the capital, Hanoi, for a state banquet.
Meanwhile, it may be an offbeat photo, but it’s no joke.
World leaders, including Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, donned matching silk button-down shirts at the APEC summit Friday. Since 1994, the summit included a “family photo” in local attire–an annual display of cooperation among world leaders.
It was a departure for Trump, who’s rarely photographed in anything but a suit and tie or a golf shirt.
President Barack Obama tried to end the custom when he hosted the summit in Hawaii in 2012, when leaders wore suits, but that proved temporary. Previous APEC shirts have included ponchos in Peru, colorful batik shirts in Malaysia, and overcoats called durumaki in Korea.
U.S. news organizations weren’t given access to the event, unlike previous summits.
Trump and Putin were spotted on video greeting one another ahead of an APEC summit gala dinner in Danang.
Trump and Putin were expected to hold a formal meeting on the sidelines of the summit. But as Trump was about to land on Friday, the White House announced no meeting would take place.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blamed scheduling conflicts.
But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this week that the pair would not meet unless they had something substantive to discuss.