APEC summit faces hurdle to reach consensus amid trade friction, wars

The leaders of the 21 Asia-Pacific economies that collectively account for more than half of global trade faced a formidable challenge in trying to reach consensus as their summit got under way on Wednesday amid U.S.-China rivalry, Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.Fresh out of a much-hyped meeting earlier in the day with Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco, with Russian President Vladimir Putin once more absent.The United States is aiming to release a joint statement to wra…READ FULL ARTICLE