The European Union is set to sign a landmark trade deal with Singapore after talks with Asian leaders keen to push back against US protectionism, but efforts to encourage China to drop state subsidies ran into resistance from Beijing.
The biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) brings together leaders representing 65 per cent of global economic output - from the EU, Switzerland, Norway and 21 Asian countries, including Russia and China.
However, a final summit communique was set to omit a call for an end to government trade distortions, according to the latest draft and EU diplomats.
China requested the changes at a negotiation of senior EU and Asian officials overnight, two diplomats said.
The statement will instead commit to "free and open trade on a level playing field" and to fighting "all forms of protectionism", in an indirect reference to Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports.
The European Union and the US accuse China of directly funding state companies through Chinese banks to help them to dominate global markets, breaking rules set down by the World Trade Organisation, of which China is a member.
The EU also wants China, which produces and consumes half the world's steel and has cut some 220 million tonnes of manufacturing overcapacity since January 2016, to reduce its capacity further.
After sessions on improving connectivity and the multilateral system and a host of bilateral meetings, the summit was due to finish on Friday with the EU signing an agreement with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
That pact has been eight years in the making. Negotiations ended in 2014, but as protests mounted against other trade accords, such as one planned with the US and one struck with Canada, the deal was sent for approval to the European Court of Justice
The Commission hopes the agreement, which still needs the backing of the European Parliament, will take effect next year.
