The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) and the US-Taiwan 21st Century Trade Initiative are two proposed agreements being negotiated by the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), according to President Joe Biden’s 2023 Trade Policy Agenda and 2022 Annual Report presented to Congress by the USTR office recently.

The report details USTR’s work to advance President Biden’s trade agenda over the last two years, as well as its priorities for 2023 and beyond.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) and the US-Taiwan 21st Century Trade Initiative are two proposed agreements being negotiated by the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), according to President Joe Biden’s 2023 Trade Policy Agenda and 2022 Annual Report presented to Congress by the USTR office recently.

“USTR’s worker-centered trade agenda is realising President Biden’s vision to grow the American economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” USTR Katherine Tai said. 

USTR and the department of commerce are negotiating an innovative trade framework, called the IPEF, with 13 countries in the Indo-Pacific region that, combined with the United States, represent 40 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP).

The IPEF will tackle 21st century challenges, particularly those exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, USTR said in a press release.

The United States and Taiwan, under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), are negotiating an ambitious new trade framework that will deepen the long-standing economic and cultural ties between the two sides.

The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, announced in June last year, includes 11 other countries that represent about 90 per cent of the Western Hemisphere’s GDP and nearly two-thirds of its people. 

This initiative will drive the region’s economic growth and broadly shared prosperity, tackle the core issues that will define the coming decades, and galvanise greater economic cooperation in the hemisphere, according to the report.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) brought concrete outcomes that levelled the playing field for workers and defended the interests of US energy and agricultural producers, the report noted. 

The United States looks forward to hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meetings in Detroit, Michigan, in May 2023 as part of the United States’ APEC host year.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)