Economic ministers from the US and 13 Indo-Pacific countries on Thursday launched negotiations on Washington’s first major pan-Asian trade engagement effort in nearly a decade, but this time any deal would not cut tariffs.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) said the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) talks in Los Angeles were aimed at future challenges, and “sustainable and equitable growth” in the Indo-Pacific region.
The effort was first launched by US President Joe Biden during a trip to Tokyo in May.
Photo: Bloomberg
Tai, who is leading the talks with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, said the ambitious initiative was making progress, although some critics have questioned its value to participating countries.
The talks include ministers from Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Together with the US the participants represent about 40 percent of global GDP.
“This framework will be a durable model for the rest of the world to follow,” Tai told the gathering.
She said the initiative would target issues such as the digital economy, labor, environment, agriculture and trade.
Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since former US president Donald Trump quit the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP) in 2017, leaving the field open to China to expand its regional influence.
More than two years of TPP negotiations led to an agreement in 2015, but the US Congress failed to ratify it as tariff-cutting free-trade deals fell out of favor, blamed for draining jobs and investment to low-wage countries.
Tai has also shunned new trade deals, focusing negotiations with the EU on labor, regulation and other non-tariff issues.
It was unclear whether all countries would participate in all four negotiation streams: trade, labor and digital standards; clean energy and decarbonization; supply chain resilience; and tax and corruption curbs.
To secure broad participation, the countries could choose among those streams.
The talks come after the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership launched in January, cutting tariffs for many of the IPEF participants. The surviving TPP countries have also launched a limited trade pact.
A senior Biden administration official told reporters on Wednesday that the IPEF platform was not an alternative to trading with China.
“It’s about engaging the economies in the Indo-Pacific in their own right, this isn’t a choice between the United States and China,” the official said.
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