Photo: VCG

The cancellation of the APEC summit originally scheduled for Chile in mid-November has ignited speculation in China about the new location and venue to sign the China-US interim trade agreement.

Peru, Singapore and the US state of Iowa have all been touted as potential candidates.

Asked where the two leaders of China and the US will meet to sign a trade agreement - if they were to meet to sign the deal - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping and the US President Donald Trump have been keeping in touch in various ways.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the deal between China and the US could be reached in one of several locations including Iowa, Alaska, Hawaii and places in China, CNBC said on Sunday.

Iowa has been suggested as a potential location as it is a large farm state - and the agricultural industry is one of the major issues to be discussed in China-US trade negotiations - and because Terry Branstad, US Ambassador to China, previously served as the 39th and 42nd governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999 and 2011 to 2017.

If there is no suitable, multilateral occasion such as the G20 or APEC for the signing, Beijing or Washington should be the proper location, said Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies in Beijing. 

Others have suggested countries with a neutral political stance such as Switzerland or Singapore. 

Dong told the Global Times on Monday that if China and the US were sincere about reaching an agreement then "the capital cities of both countries are the proper locations."

But Gao Lingyun, a think tank expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said that if a location was chosen in China or the US, it would not satisfy people from both countries. 

"If there is another member of APEC willing to hold the summit, the phase-one trade agreement is likely to be signed there," Gao said.

According to the APEC hosting rules, South America is up for the summit this year, Gao said, noting that as Chile has withdrawn, Peru was a likely venue for the signature of an interim agreement. "Peru may be the first choice." Gao told the Global Times on Monday.

New Zealand was also among the considerations as it is also a farm country and there is little difference in distance to the country from China and the US, Gao noted.

Gao forecast that the signing will be delayed if another place cannot be confirmed by November 16 or 17, the originally scheduled meeting time for APEC in Chile. 

"But it is likely the deal will be reached by the end of the year," Gao said, noting that US President Donald Trump needs the agreement finalized as leverage for his re-election.

Some Chinese internet users expressed curiosity about the location. 

A WeChat user wondered why Alaska was being considered

"Will it be too cold there for an agreement signature? Maybe China is a better choice since the country is good at holding meetings."
Newspaper headline: Speculation mounts over venue for China-US deal