The delegations from the three largest economies in the world — the United States, China and Japan — are now gone from the recent ASEAN and East Asia summits here, as well as from the APEC summit in Papua New Guinea.
The ramifications of ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions though continue to be felt as the world's eyes turn next to Argentina, when leaders from the world's largest economies convene for the 13th summit of the Group of 20 in Buenos Aires.
For the first time ever in its nearly 30 years, the APEC summit ended in disarray, without a final communique. The Wall Street Journal reported that China effectively torpedoed a communique over a single sentence: "We agreed to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices." China's worries, no doubt, could well have been over concerns that its own trade practices are being recognized increasingly as unfair.