USA: The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks, led by the US and involving 14 countries as part of Washington's effort to counter China's influence in the region, were on Friday in trade and investment ties. Ended up with agreed guidelines for enhancement. But some specifics on how these will be implemented.
IPEF's four main focus areas, the economic components of the Indo-Pacific strategy unveiled by President Joe Biden in May, are trade, supply chain resilience, clean energy and a "fair economy".
These regions are intended to respond to criticism that, despite being an important security partner in the Indo-Pacific, the US cannot counter China's growing economic clout.
Without going into details, US Trade Representative Catherine Tai, who co-hosted the inaugural meeting in Los Angeles with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, said the meeting was an opportunity to strengthen our partnership and fill in the blanks that How do we work together? To address the challenges and opportunities that define the 21st century.
Raimondo continued, “Our first one-on-one meeting has been an undeniable success. I am proud of the progress we have made and look forward to taking this project forward.
The fact that many regional allies and partners would prefer the US win, wanting a trade deal that would ease US tariffs and other import barriers, is a major weakness of the US initiative, according to analysts.
But given that American voters are tired of multilateral trade agreements, all this has become politically impossible.
Early in his presidency in 2017, former President Donald Trump withdrew the world's largest economy from the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade agreement.
"We must take IPEF and make this opportunity a reality," said Christine McDaniel, senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.
“The trade facilitation is great, and connecting our infrastructure to their infrastructure is important. But if you are doing all that and still have to pay the 20% tariff it defeats the purpose.
US importers and exporters agreed that the Los Angeles meeting was instrumental in setting the IPEF benchmark, but stressed that there was more work to be done.
The National Foreign Trade Council, a group consisting of 100 members, announced in a statement that the hard work begins now.
We urge nations to quickly capitalize on this momentum and negotiate commitments that will have real economic impact.
India's decision not to join the trade column for reasons unknown is a reminder of how difficult it will be for IPEF to reconcile the often divergent viewpoints.
The difficulty is that there are 14 different ministers, each representing a different economy, bureaucratic and political environment. Tai said many problematic issues would be resolved in bilateral talks with India.
That may be the hardest part of this exercise.
In their final statement on Friday, Raimondo and Tai praised the "zeal" shown during the talks and said the 14 member states would continue to make progress in the four economic pillars of the IPEF.
Objectives of the target include establishing strict guidelines that are needed to promote inclusive growth, cooperating to prevent future supply-chain disruptions, encouraging investment in clean energy and carbon capture, and tackling corruption. To try.
Although China was not specifically mentioned in the closing remarks, the objectives of the meeting and the IPEF clearly play a role in US efforts to counter Beijing.
This is demonstrated by the organization's emphasis on international norms, openness and the rule of law, as well as a focus on strong supply chains with respect to "free and fair" trade and national security. In each of these areas, the US has criticized China.
The purpose is further demonstrated by the IPEF's no-numbers structure, which reflects similar coalition initiatives launched by the Biden administration.
These include the Ocus Coalition, a security agreement between Australia, Britain and the US that seeks to curb China's growing regional influence, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, which brings together the US, Australia, India and Japan.
Beijing has repeatedly referred to these initiatives as an expression of "Cold War" thinking and "faction" mentality. At the launch of the IPEF in March, Beijing described the initiative as an attempt to "start a bloc confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region". China has also worked to strengthen its ties and demonstrate that it has friends.
China's President Xi Jinping will visit Central Asia in mid-September for bilateral talks and a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a group of 18 nations that Beijing convened in 2015. This was announced this week by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
It would be Xi's first trip outside of China since the coronavirus pandemic began, underscoring the significance of the group. The journey has also given rise to rumours that Xi might meet with Vladimir Putin while in the area.
On Friday, Biden promoted yet another significant economic initiative, which was to clean up his country's own mess by bolstering US manufacturing, particularly with regard to cutting-edge semiconductors. Beijing's Made in China 2025 economic road map places a strong emphasis on chip production.
At the groundbreaking for a $20 billion Intel chip manufacturing facility in Ohio, Biden told the assembled crowd, "We need to make these chips right here in America."
Biden added, sporting aviator sunglasses, "America's back." "The chip industry will be manufactured in America in the future."
Iden's visit to the crucial election state comes after he signed the US$53 billion Chips and Science Act into law, which was approved by both houses of the US Congress.
With massive machinery in the background, Biden said, "It's no wonder that the Chinese Communist Party actively lobbied US business against this law."
Ministers from the countries that collectively account for 40% of global economic output—Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam—participated in this week's talks in Los Angeles.
The IPEF has not yet set a date for its next meeting, according to Raimondo, but she added that she anticipates it to happen in the first half of 2023
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