[CTC] Tai: Next round of IPEF talks to focus on environment, labor, digital

Tue Dec 20 07:20:25 PST 2022

Tai: Second round of IPEF talks to focus on environment, labor, digital

Inside US trade, 12/20/22

The U.S. plans to table texts on the environment, labor and digital trade during the next round of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity negotiations, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Monday, characterizing the three as “core” areas.

During a first round of in-person talks last week in Brisbane, Australia, U.S. negotiators led delegates from the 13 other IPEF members through several texts on issues under the agreement’s trade pillar, while setting aside the three more central -- and more time-consuming -- issues for a second round, Tai said during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations <https://www.cfr.org/event/c-peter-mccolough-series-international-economics-katherine-tai>. USTR leads the framework’s pillar on trade; the Commerce Department heads the other three and plays a role in negotiations on digital trade.

U.S. draft texts discussed in Brisbane covered topics including trade facilitation, good regulatory practices for goods and services, and agriculture, Tai noted. In addition to the texts on trade, U.S. negotiators tabled texts on the agreement’s supply chains and fair economy pillars as well as a “concept paper” on a clean economy pillar, as described in a joint statement issued last week by USTR and Commerce <https://insidetrade.com/sites/insidetrade.com/files/documents/2022/dec/wto2022_0924a.pdf>.

“These are the first three proposals that we've put down because in some ways they were the most obvious,” Tai said about the first tranche of trade texts, linking them to “the promotion of resilience and sustainability.”

“Looking ahead to the next round of negotiations,” she continued, “it is our intention to put on the table proposals that really get to the core of the Indo-Pacific economic engagement, which will be on workers, on the environment, and on digital.”

Tai added that each of those areas “will take us more time, which is why we're doing it in the second tranche” -- and suggested that the proposals would innovate on past efforts.

“It was really important for us to consolidate our thinking, to push ourselves on innovation,” she said.

IPEF members have not yet announced when or where the next negotiating round will be held. A senior administration official <https://insidetrade.com/node/175639> ahead of the talks in Australia said next year’s calendar likely would include “a number of rounds on many critical issues.”'

The digital trade aspect of the trade pillar has been a key focus for some IPEF members <https://insidetrade.com/node/175040> -- and has drawn the attention, and scrutiny, of an array of private sector and civil society groups.

Tai said the U.S. was focused on ensuring its negotiations with partners on the digital economy were “comprehensive and holistic.”

“It has to be something that reflects the interests and aspirations and anxieties of our big tech companies, our small tech companies, our workers, those who are focused on our clean energy future and our environmental protection, and also those who are experts and who are working on issues around our freedoms and our democratic norms,” she said.

In addition, Tai said the administration was paying “particular attention” to engaging Congress in “all of those areas that are subject to active work, debate, legislative effort.”

“In what I do in trade,” Tai added, “I need to make sure that I don't get out ahead of where our policymakers are.”

She suggested that congressional action on certain issues -- such as online liability and privacy -- could help drive negotiations on digital trade, saying “the more work that our Congress can do to legislate, the more tools we have to work with, the more specificity we can bring to the negotiation."

Lawmakers from both parties and in both chambers have said that USTR has not provided sufficient transparency in its negotiations of IPEF and other trade arrangements -- claims USTR has pushed back against, citing regular briefings with legislative staff.
In addition, some lawmakers -- including the leaders and most members <https://insidetrade.com/node/175575> of the Senate Finance Committee as well as 12 Democratic members <https://insidetrade.com/node/175748> of the 

House Ways & Means Committee -- have contended the administration is exceeding its authority in pursuing trade deals that will not be submitted for congressional approval.

Ahead of the talks in Brisbane, a senior administration official told reporters that the issues under negotiation did not require new legislation <https://insidetrade.com/node/175639>.

Speaking more broadly about her goals for the framework, Tai suggested the U.S. was focused on offering -- and seeking -- more “choices” in a region where China is a major player, a message she noted echoed comments made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In a speech last year <https://www.state.gov/a-free-and-open-indo-pacific/> laying out the administration’s strategy toward the Indo-Pacific, Blinken said a “free and open” Indo-Pacific would require that individual countries “be able to choose their own path and their own partners.”

“What we are doing is bringing our partners a choice,” Tai said. “And of course, the question that I then have been asking myself is, as we design this economic framework, what is it that the United States wants to get out of it? And I think it's quite similar. We are also looking for more choices.” -- Margaret Spiegelman (mspiegelman at iwpnews.com <mailto:mspiegelman at iwpnews.com>)

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20221220/26212d86/attachment.htm>