PARIS – United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today convened an informal meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) partner countries. The meeting included participation from all 13 IPEF partners: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
During this meeting, Ambassador Tai shared her vision for the IPEF’s trade pillar, including how it can advance resilience, inclusivity, and sustainability. She also noted that the United States looks forward to launching negotiations under the trade pillar, which will help fuel economic activity and investment, promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and benefit workers and consumers across the region.
Ambassador Tai explained her hope that the United States and IPEF partners that choose to join the trade pillar will seek to build high-standard, inclusive, free, and fair trade commitments and develop new and creative approaches in trade and technology policy that advance a broad set of objectives related to: labor; environment; the digital economy; agriculture; transparency and good regulatory practices; competition policy; and trade facilitation.
BACKGROUND:
On May 23, 2022, the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam launched the process to establish the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. On May 26, 2022, Fiji also became a founding member of the IPEF.
This framework is intended to advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness for our economies. Through this initiative, the IPEF partners aim to contribute to cooperation, stability, prosperity, development, and peace within the region. IPEF partners are engaged in collective discussions toward future negotiations on the following pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization, and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is leading discussions on the trade pillar; whereas the U.S. Department of Commerce is leading discussions on the other three pillars.
The full text of the IPEF launch statement is available here.
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