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US plans ‘coalition of democracies’ for trade but won’t join CPTPP: Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo

  • Washington must ‘run faster’ to keep its allies’ confidence as China bids to join the regional trade pact, the commerce secretary tells Bloomberg New Economy Forum
  • The Biden administration has no plans to join the 11-nation pact, but will instead seek a ‘proper economic framework’ to maintain a ‘secure supply chain’

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US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks in Singapore. Photo: AFP
Faced with a China that is seeking to portray itself as the new poster child of multilateralism, the United States must “run faster” to convince its allies about the merits of cooperating with Washington, the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has said.
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Speaking in Singapore at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Raimondo said the US had its own plans to step up regional trade cooperation even as China contemplates joining the CPTPP pact that makes up about 15 per cent of global trade.
The 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is derived from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the sprawling multilateral trade pact championed by President Barack Obama but later torpedoed by Donald Trump when he took office in 2017.
With President Joe Biden now in power, there is still little appetite across the political divide in Washington for the US to be part of the CPTPP, given the perception that such mega trade agreements result in the destruction of blue-collar US jobs.

While the Biden administration has no plans to join the CPTPP, it is pinning hopes on a new economic framework involving regional allies, Raimondo said in an interview with Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.

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“We’re likely to launch a more formal process in the beginning of next year which will culminate in a proper economic framework,” Raimondo said, noting that this pact would among other things help the US and its allies maintain a “secure supply chain”.

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