ONE DOWN, THREE TO GO: There have been a plethora of questions about President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework since U.S. officials first floated the idea in 2021 and then formally announced it last year. Skeptics of the non-traditional trade pact have wondered what exactly would be included, whether commitments would be enforceable, and whether the 13 other nations engaged in the negotiations would have incentive to sign on. The administration started offering its most concrete answers yet over the weekend when Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced negotiators had reached an agreement on one of the framework’s four pillars that aims to prevent disruptions to critical supply chains. The text of the deal won’t be made public until after a legal review and, even then, it must still clear each country’s domestic approval process. (We’re still waiting for clarity from the Commerce Department on what that means in the U.S.) But based on the details Raimondo shared with reporters, the main thrust of the agreement will be the creation of three new bodies focused on supply chains — a council to enact joint policy actions, a network to communicate in a crisis and an advisory board to address labor shortages and workers’ rights. As Wendy Cutler, vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, put it, the announcement itself is “largely process oriented.” “In essence, the IPEF members have established a framework within a framework to address supply chain concerns, with much of the substantive work yet to be discussed and agreed upon,” Cutler said. “Curiously, the new bodies are ‘contemplated,’ and apparently not yet agreed upon, suggesting that there were some last-minute hitches in even setting up this structure.” Also outstanding: The remaining three pillars of the IPEF are still under negotiation and administration officials only said over the weekend that progress was being made. Those segments of the agreement, which delve into fair trade, clean energy, and anti-corruption and taxes, contain some of the thornier topics on which countries are more likely to disagree. Negotiators raced until the last minute to reach the “substantial conclusion” of the supply chain pillar ahead of a gathering of IPEF trade ministers in Detroit on Saturday. Now the Biden administration is hoping that will generate momentum to finish the other parts of the agreement before November. “The IPEF is our commitment to the people,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told reporters. “We have an incredible opportunity for us to demonstrate what we can do to address daily challenges and to seize tomorrow's opportunities. We’re excited about continuing our discussions in the months ahead.” Not so excited: But the domestic critics of the initiative are growing more vocal as the months tick away. Progressive groups that have long been opposed to more traditional free trade agreements are raising concern about provisions related to digital trade, labor rights and environmental protections. Outside the Detroit hotel where trade leaders met, one lonely protest truck funded by Demand Progress cautioned Tai and Raimondo against using IPEF to help Big Tech companies. But industry groups that favor unfettered free trade are anxious as well. A coalition of more than 30 business and agriculture groups sent a strongly worded letter to Tai and Raimondo on Friday criticizing the talks for reportedly excluding issues like technical barriers to trade, sector-specific regulations, and sanitary and phytosanitary standards. “We are growing increasingly concerned that the content and direction of the administration’s proposals for the talks risk not only failing to deliver meaningful strategic and commercial outcomes but also endangering U.S. trade and economic interests in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” the letter states. For their part, Raimondo and Tai were unfazed by the criticism. Raimondo said Saturday that she had not read the letter but the arguments were “flatly wrong” and “reflects the misunderstanding of what the IPEF is and what it isn't.” Tai added that the articles of IPEF were always going to be different from what’s been done in the past. “The way that we are positioning ourselves is to do right by the entire U.S. economy. That means we're scoping a much wider lens in terms of who we are representing and advocating for in the U.S. economy,” she said.
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