Author: Kati Suominen is a Research Fellow at the Hinrich Foundation a PBEC Corporate Member and partner Foundation – July 2024
Created in 2022, the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, or IPEF, was the Biden administration’s response to the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The IPEF is non-binding and fails to deliver any market access, such as lowering tariffs and non-tariff barriers like subsidies and import quotas. It also does not meaningfully address digital trade rules. In October 2023, on the eve of the November APEC Summit in San Francisco, the US withdrew its support from the WTO e-commerce talks on key digital trade issues such as data transfer and source code protection. As such, IPEF stands in contrast to other mega-regional deals that do not include the US, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Read more here: https://www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/wp/ftas/the-scorecard-for-ipef/
