Race to finish Indo-Pacific trade deals hit snags ahead of APEC summit
By David Lawder
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The United States is aiming to show that its key Asian economic initiative is making progress as Pacific Rim leaders gather in San Francisco next week, but significant holes remain on trade-related chapters, according to people familiar with the talks.
Negotiators from 14 countries are racing to close out chapters of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity in hastily arranged talks this week, with announcements expected on cooperation to accelerate the clean energy transition and to fight corruption and tax evasion.
U.S. President Joe Biden is eager to portray IPEF as producing meaningful outcomes to leaders of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation countries, as he seeks to offer them a U.S.-led alternative to deeper economic ties to China.
When the Biden administration launched the IPEF concept in October 2021, it made clear that the U.S.-hosted APEC summit was a key deadline, «and that has raised expectations,» said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator who now heads the Asia Society Policy Center in Washington.
«The importance of this is to show that the U.S. is stepping up, through APEC and IPEF, to say, 'We're back in Asia and we're going to remain a close economic partner,'» Cutler said.
Former President Donald Trump's administration abandoned the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal in 2017, but IPEF is far more limited in scope, foregoing traditional tariff reductions and other market-access improvements. Instead, it promised cooperation on supply chains and clean energy along with higher standards for labor, environment and regulatory practices and digital trade.
Countries participating in IPEF are Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India,
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