[CTC] Tai: APEP will build on existing trade ties, feature multiple pillars

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Note formal APEP negotiations are expected to begin this fall.  H/t Melanie Foley

Tai: APEP will build on existing trade ties, feature multiple pillars

Inside US Trade, 8/23/22

 

DES MOINES, IOWA – The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, announced at the Summit of the Americas in June, will build on the “strong core” of existing trade agreements and arrangements in the region, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said here last week, adding that it would be “multifaceted” and include multiple pillars.

 

The Biden administration has released no further details about the initiative since the announcement <https://insidetrade.com/node/174216>; a senior administration official at the time told reporters to expect “formal negotiations” to begin in two to three months. In an interview with Inside U.S. Trade, Tai did not narrow down the time frame, but she expanded some on the new initiative’s purpose and goal.

 

Like other recent initiatives from the administration – including the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity and the U.S.-European Union Trade and Technology Council – APEP will feature multiple pillars and address “multifaceted” issues, Tai said.

 

“It's going to be tailored to the relationships in the Western Hemisphere, so I don't quite know how to describe it yet with respect to being relative to IPEF or TTC but, you know, in in the Americas we have more existing FTAs than with any other region in the world,” she added, characterizing it as a “strong core of existing trade arrangements and relationships.”

 

“I think that ultimately [with] the APEP you'll see us kind of bringing all those strands together,” Tai continued. “It's not only in terms of trade. It's not going to be something that's inventing out of whole cloth, but it's going to be building on the relationships that we have.... I guess I would say stay tuned on exactly how it's going to look. But the idea is building on all of the things that we have already done. So it won't be, you know, entirely new.”

 

The U.S. has several free trade agreements with countries in the Americas – the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement as well as trade deals with Chile, Colombia and Peru. Additionally, the U.S. has broad trade and investment framework agreements – what Tai called “TIFA-plus” – arrangements with several additional South American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, and with the CARICOM countries in the Caribbean.

 

According to the White House fact sheet released at the time of the APEP announcement, the initiative will focus on “mobilizing investment,” supply chain resilience, tax and anti-corruption measures, decarbonization and “ensuring sustainable and inclusive trade.” These broadly echo the four pillars of IPEF, which are trade, supply chain resiliency, decarbonization and clean infrastructure, and tax and anti-corruption. USTR leads the IPEF trade pillar while the Commerce Department leads the other three.

 

“Together with partners, we deepen our economic cooperation, focusing on the largest drivers of middle-out growth, and shaping new tools for the challenges facing us today and, in the decades, to come,” the White House said in June. “As a high-standards approach that is built on shared values, this partnership will support U.S. business and workers and support hemispheric recovery, resilience, and stability across the Americas.” -- Hannah Monicken (hmonicken at iwpnews.com <mailto:hmonicken at iwpnews.com>)

 

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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