U.S. Starts Broad Economic Talks with 13 Nations to Counter China
U.S. set to host gathering of Asian nations on new economic agreement to China’s rising influence in the region.
Thirteen countries are expected to send representatives to the two-day kickoff event that started Thursday in Los Angeles for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, or IPEF, which covers about 40% of global gross domestic product. It includes Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia, all members of the Group of 20 largest economies.
While the framework is the most significant U.S. economic engagement in the region since Donald Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2017, President Joe Biden’s new effort is thin on specifics and is expected to stop short of reducing tariffs like a traditional free-trade agreement.
The US will seek to focus on non-tariff issues that can still deliver market access for American exporters, a Biden administration official said Wednesday, without providing specifics beyond the four so-called pillars of the framework — trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and taxes and anti-corruption.
Source: American Journal of Transportation (AJOT)
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