US business group calls for progress on ‘trade pillar’ of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as talks hit snag
- Two Democratic senators have asked Joe Biden’s administration to drop the trade element from the IPEF, citing a lack of ‘enforceable labour standards’
- The chance of finishing negotiations – and sending a message to China that the US is still deeply involved in the region – now seems slim
An influential American business group on Monday urged President Joe Biden’s administration to move forward with trade negotiations as part of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a US-led initiative to encourage allies and partners in the strategically significant region to reduce their reliance on China.
“It would be a terrible blow to US credibility after we negotiated and then withdrew from the TPP if we were to do something similar” with the trade portion of the IPEF, said John Murphy of the US Chamber of Commerce, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade agreement that president Donald Trump ditched in 2017.
The deal, which promised market access benefits, was negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
There is brewing opposition within Biden’s Democratic Party to his plans to finalise a deal on the “trade pillar” of IPEF this week, when leaders from the group’s 14 member states gather at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in San Francisco. But the chance of finishing the negotiations – and sending a message to China that the US is still deeply involved in the region despite leaving the TPP – now seems slim.
Last week, Senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio and leader of the Senate Banking Committee, and Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and Senate Finance Committee chairman, demanded dropping the trade talks from IPEF, citing a lack of “enforceable labour standards”.
