ISDS Case Map
Asia
The challenges underscore the scheme’s ambitious nature and ‘great difficulty in reaching agreements among a very heterogeneous group of countries’, say analysts.
Fourteen countries in US-led Indo-Pacific trade talks are nearing an agreement on supply chain coordination and may announce a deal as soon as next week.
US trade negotiators are in Singapore this week for the latest round of talks over the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the economic initiative that top administration officials have said they’re on track to conclude by year’s end.
US trade officials have solicited the advice of lobbyists for Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other major technology companies to help craft the new Indo-Pacific trade framework.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Indo-Pacific Economic Framework trade negotiations are progressing "at a very quick pace" and she expects results from the talks as early as by the end of the year.
Trade advisers get special access to agreements and can comment on them before they are made public. More than 4 out of 5 advisers represent corporations.
International trade agreements, typically negotiated in secret and without public deliberation, could prematurely deter or undercut ongoing efforts to regulate the tech industry.
The bottom-line is that the USMCA and related TPP digital rules that represent the agenda promoted by Big Tech interests must not become the model or starting text for future agreements.
The Asean members who are part of the framework have been pushing for the inclusion of Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
The summaries of US inputs at the recent Bali round of negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) reveal US pressure of the other 13 states to adopt US standards.
