<p>Southeast Asian leaders met Saturday in Thailand eyeing a breakthrough in talks over the world's largest trade deal to help throw off the torpor which has gripped the global economy since the start of the US-China tariff war.</p>.<p>The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened their annual summit in Bangkok hoping to secure a China-backed free-trade pact knitting together half of the world's population and around 40 per cent of its commerce.</p>.<p>The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a deal spanning India to New Zealand that has been wrangled over for several years.</p>.<p>It is now seen as an urgent counterpoint to US protectionism, but a trade delegate from the Philippines said a deal was unlikely until 2020.</p>.<p>Washington's trade rumble with Beijing has weighed on markets, with the IMF warning the spat could cut global growth to the lowest pace in more than a decade.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's protectionist rhetoric has spooked some ASEAN nations who fear their economies could fall under his crosshairs.</p>.<p>Trump has repeatedly warned of further intervention to protect American business and several Asian nations are waiting to find out if the US will put them on a watchlist of "currency manipulators".</p>.<p>Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned the regional bloc could hit back against any punitive trade measures, skirting over specifics.</p>.<p>"We will do exactly what Trump does," he told a business forum ahead of the summit opening, calling the US leader "not a very nice man".</p>.<p>"If you go alone, you will be bullied. We don't want to go into a trade war but sometimes when they do things that are not nice to us, we have to be unnice to them," he added.</p>.<p>Earlier his Thai counterpart, Prayut Chan-O-Cha, echoed the theme of regional cooperation on the RCEP deal, while Philippines' trade secretary Ramon Lopez said he hoped to have a "very positive report (on RCEP) come Monday" when the summit ends.</p>.<p>But the treaty's signing would happen "within next year", Lopez added, and members will meet in February to sort out "pending issues on market access".</p>.<p>India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also in Thailand, is the greatest obstacle to RCEP in its current form.</p>.<p>New Delhi fears opening key industries such as metals, textiles and dairy to cheaper Chinese importers.</p>.<p>Indian intransigence has cast the deal -- looping in the 10 Southeast Asian economies along with Japan, India, China, New Zealand and Australia -- into doubt.</p>.<p>"We want them (India) to be in. We want to have them... they are a big economy," Lopez told reporters.</p>.<p>Chinese premier Li Keqiang will attend the three-day meet, where simmering tensions in the South China Sea will also lead the agenda.</p>.<p>China supports RCEP, a deal seen as a way for Beijing to assert its trade dominance in its Asian backyard after the US pullout of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017.</p>.<p>The ASEAN summit follows a push by Washington and Beijing for a partial agreement to squash some of tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods that have rattled both economies.</p>.<p>But Washington has pared back its delegation to Bangkok this year.</p>.<p>In what is being read by some as a snub to ASEAN, the US is sending national security advisor Robert O'Brien and commerce chief Wilbur Ross.</p>.<p>US Vice President Mike Pence attended last year's ASEAN summit in Singapore, and President Donald Trump was at the 2017 meeting in the Philippines.</p>.<p>A senior White House official refuted claims of a snub to the Southeast Asian bloc.</p>.<p>Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are unavailable because they will be "very engaged in campaigning" for a string of governors' races, the official told reporters.</p>.<p>Trump instead trusts O'Brien "to go out and take care of big problems and small problems", the official added.</p>
<p>Southeast Asian leaders met Saturday in Thailand eyeing a breakthrough in talks over the world's largest trade deal to help throw off the torpor which has gripped the global economy since the start of the US-China tariff war.</p>.<p>The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened their annual summit in Bangkok hoping to secure a China-backed free-trade pact knitting together half of the world's population and around 40 per cent of its commerce.</p>.<p>The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a deal spanning India to New Zealand that has been wrangled over for several years.</p>.<p>It is now seen as an urgent counterpoint to US protectionism, but a trade delegate from the Philippines said a deal was unlikely until 2020.</p>.<p>Washington's trade rumble with Beijing has weighed on markets, with the IMF warning the spat could cut global growth to the lowest pace in more than a decade.</p>.<p>Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's protectionist rhetoric has spooked some ASEAN nations who fear their economies could fall under his crosshairs.</p>.<p>Trump has repeatedly warned of further intervention to protect American business and several Asian nations are waiting to find out if the US will put them on a watchlist of "currency manipulators".</p>.<p>Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned the regional bloc could hit back against any punitive trade measures, skirting over specifics.</p>.<p>"We will do exactly what Trump does," he told a business forum ahead of the summit opening, calling the US leader "not a very nice man".</p>.<p>"If you go alone, you will be bullied. We don't want to go into a trade war but sometimes when they do things that are not nice to us, we have to be unnice to them," he added.</p>.<p>Earlier his Thai counterpart, Prayut Chan-O-Cha, echoed the theme of regional cooperation on the RCEP deal, while Philippines' trade secretary Ramon Lopez said he hoped to have a "very positive report (on RCEP) come Monday" when the summit ends.</p>.<p>But the treaty's signing would happen "within next year", Lopez added, and members will meet in February to sort out "pending issues on market access".</p>.<p>India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also in Thailand, is the greatest obstacle to RCEP in its current form.</p>.<p>New Delhi fears opening key industries such as metals, textiles and dairy to cheaper Chinese importers.</p>.<p>Indian intransigence has cast the deal -- looping in the 10 Southeast Asian economies along with Japan, India, China, New Zealand and Australia -- into doubt.</p>.<p>"We want them (India) to be in. We want to have them... they are a big economy," Lopez told reporters.</p>.<p>Chinese premier Li Keqiang will attend the three-day meet, where simmering tensions in the South China Sea will also lead the agenda.</p>.<p>China supports RCEP, a deal seen as a way for Beijing to assert its trade dominance in its Asian backyard after the US pullout of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017.</p>.<p>The ASEAN summit follows a push by Washington and Beijing for a partial agreement to squash some of tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods that have rattled both economies.</p>.<p>But Washington has pared back its delegation to Bangkok this year.</p>.<p>In what is being read by some as a snub to ASEAN, the US is sending national security advisor Robert O'Brien and commerce chief Wilbur Ross.</p>.<p>US Vice President Mike Pence attended last year's ASEAN summit in Singapore, and President Donald Trump was at the 2017 meeting in the Philippines.</p>.<p>A senior White House official refuted claims of a snub to the Southeast Asian bloc.</p>.<p>Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are unavailable because they will be "very engaged in campaigning" for a string of governors' races, the official told reporters.</p>.<p>Trump instead trusts O'Brien "to go out and take care of big problems and small problems", the official added.</p>