The US, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea and eight other Oceanic and Southeast Asian countries announced on Monday the creation of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a new regional cooperation scheme aimed at promoting trade and investment among its partners. The idea is to prepare their economies "for the future" and counter China's influence and dependence on the region.
US President Joe Biden presented this new multilateral scheme during his visit to Japan, as part of his first Asian tour. The visit has focused on deepening economic and security cooperation in the face of China's rise in the region. The Asian giant has promoted an organization with countries in the area, RCEP, which has become the largest free trade agreement in the world.
The first critics point out that the pact does not offer reductions in tariffs or greater access to the US market, which lowers its interest over alternatives such as the Trans-Pacific Agreement (TPP), which has continued despite the departure of the US by order of former President Donald Trump. China is interested in joining this agreement.
The IPEF represents Washington's biggest effort since Trump's order, but if there is no free trade, it risks being "very soft", Kazuhiro Maeshima, a specialist in American politics at Sophia University in Tokyo, told AFP. Especially since many countries in the region do not want to offend China.
Following the ravages of the pandemic crisis and the disruption of supply chains, one of IPEF's main areas of cooperation will be to "secure supply chains" of strategic importance such as raw materials or semiconductors, whose availability has been reduced because of the impact on China of the coronavirus pandemic and because of the war in Ukraine.
Together, the members represent 40% of global GDP, surpassing the impact of RCEP. Along with the four countries mentioned above are Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
IPEF members "share a commitment to a free, open, fair, inclusive, interconnected, resilient, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region", and with the "potential for sustainable and inclusive economic growth", states the joint statement of this initiative promoted by the USA.
The thirteen countries recognize "the interconnection of their economic interests" in the region and stress the need to "deepen their economic commitments" to "maintain growth, peace and prosperity." The members commit to improve the "transparency, security, diversity and sustainability" of their supply chains, as well as to "coordinate crisis response measures" and "expand cooperation to mitigate the effects of disruptions", adding new countries in the future.
In commercial matters, the aim is to create "high common standards" and "commercial commitments" to promote economic growth that affects workers and consumers, and that will focus on the digital area and other industries. China has repeatedly accused the US of trying to stem its rise by forming economic and military alliances in the region. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the Indo-Pacific strategy was "doomed to fail."
Another of the legs of the common project will be to support the development of clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure, for which it is contemplated to "mobilize financial resources", "cooperation in technologies" and "technical assistance", according to the joint statement.
Finally, the thirteen participating countries commit to "promote fair competition" by applying robust fiscal and anti-money laundering and anti-corruption measures, and note that they will work to expand cooperation to additional fields.
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