THE leaders of Australia and Singapore closed a regional summit Sunday with a stand against protectionism, arguing in favor of multi-nation trade deals as fears mount that U.S. plans for new tariffs could stoke a global trade war.

“We strongly believe that a free, open and rules-based multilateral trading system is key to the region’s growth and prosperity,” Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at a news conference to mark the end of a summit between Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the tariffs March 7 to protect domestic steel and aluminum producers on national security grounds. The United States is also looking at tariffs on up to US$60 billion worth of Chinese imports, targeting technology and telecom sectors.

Singapore and Australia urged ASEAN to speedily agree to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a China-backed alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact that Trump withdrew the United States from last year.

“If we secure a good agreement, this would be, as one of our colleagues said this morning, an antithesis of protectionism, it would ensure, on the back of the TPP-11, that the Indo-Pacific continues to be the fulcrum of open and free trade,” Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

Officially, the summit was focused on fostering closer economic ties among the members of ASEAN and Australia, and countering the threat of Islamist militants returning to the region from the Middle East.

Australia hosted the meetings despite not being a member of the 10-nation bloc, aiming to tighten political and trade ties in the region. (SD-Agencies)