Posted on Nov 18, 2021, 5:43 PM
Uncle Sam does not intend to be left behind in the Indo-Pacific by China. A few weeks before the effective implementation of the Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership (RCEP) bringing together 10 ASEAN member countries to which are added China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Washington continues its offensive.
On the occasion of the meeting in Tokyo of the United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, with the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa, the United States and Japan announced the creation of a new trade partnership to strengthen their ties. .
Discussions on steel and aluminum
The first of a series of meetings between the two governments is expected to take place in early 2022. Discussions will focus on issues such as regional and multilateral trade forums, labor, the environment and the digital ecosystem, the statement said. published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Earlier today, I had the pleasure of meeting @JapanGov Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno. We talked about our strong bilateral trade relationship and @POTUS‘s Economic Framework for the Indo-Pacific. pic.twitter.com/hRkmdg1tiU
— Ambassador Katherine Tai (@AmbassadorTai) November 17, 2021
As the United States and the European Union have agreed to end U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the Union, Washington and Tokyo will also discuss the same issue. concerning US taxes affecting Japanese producers. Namely a duty of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum introduced by the Trump administration in June 2018.
While the Biden administration is more open than the previous one, it does not intend to integrate the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Signed in 2018, this partnership which brings together Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand and in which China is also interested is an avatar of the trans-Pacific partnership, signed in 2016 with the United States, but that Donald Trump had decided to leave in 2017.
a new economic framework
The United States will not join the CPTPP anytime soon, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said Wednesday at a Bloomberg forum on the new economy in Singapore. On the other hand, she mentioned the launch next year of an Indo-Pacific economic framework. “We should launch a more formal process early next year, which will result in an appropriate economic framework in the region,” she said. Assuring that this project had “nothing to do with China”, the fact remains that Washington is maneuvering in the region to counter China. Both militarily and commercially.
The United States, Japan and the European Union announced on Wednesday that they had agreed to renew their trilateral partnership to face the global challenges posed by the non-market policies and practices of third countries. Beijing is implicitly targeted here again. The three partners are due to resume their work in the coming weeks with the intention of meeting on the sidelines of the next Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization from November 30 to December 3 in Geneva.
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