AUCKLAND Corralling the 21 governments in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation bloc into acting on regional challenges is hard enough at the best of times. It may be something practically unachievable in 2018.
Already strained by U.S. President Donald Trump's retrenchment from regional economic affairs, APEC now faces a clouded outlook for its annual summit on Nov. 12-18, as the task of running the event -- with its 180 meetings of ministers and other officials -- has been handed over to Papua New Guinea, its poorest member.
