Berliner Boersenzeitung - Asia trade talk stumble is another setback for US: analysts

EUR -
AED 3.998043
AFN 76.035653
ALL 101.177683
AMD 438.48659
ANG 1.962597
AOA 905.775394
ARS 392.655948
AUD 1.632926
AWG 1.962331
AZN 1.855064
BAM 1.954403
BBD 2.198728
BDT 120.054191
BGN 1.954403
BHD 0.410407
BIF 3097.386133
BMD 1.088672
BND 1.455959
BOB 7.524622
BRL 5.359669
BSD 1.088922
BTN 90.682185
BWP 14.735468
BYN 3.587736
BYR 21337.968617
BZD 2.195031
CAD 1.469435
CDF 2906.754282
CHF 0.947219
CLF 0.034258
CLP 945.284355
CNY 7.698874
COP 4373.673902
CRC 576.288096
CUC 1.088672
CUP 28.849805
CVE 110.186244
CZK 24.281524
DJF 193.891415
DKK 7.45708
DOP 62.015674
DZD 146.865145
EGP 33.649249
ERN 16.330078
ETB 61.18187
FJD 2.417727
FKP 0.856704
GBP 0.857289
GEL 2.934014
GGP 0.856704
GHS 13.078652
GIP 0.856704
GMD 73.349311
GNF 9358.311117
GTQ 8.529903
GYD 227.82716
HKD 8.503947
HNL 26.871793
HRK 7.665959
HTG 144.126985
HUF 378.880006
IDR 16802.289446
ILS 4.046784
IMP 0.856704
INR 90.598021
IQD 1426.580347
IRR 46009.998988
ISK 151.140736
JEP 0.856704
JMD 168.299707
JOD 0.772308
JPY 159.84429
KES 165.851457
KGS 97.093749
KHR 4480.797335
KMF 492.570005
KPW 979.804681
KRW 1413.460833
KWD 0.336106
KYD 0.907451
KZT 502.590772
LAK 22546.884541
LBP 16367.201489
LKR 357.474494
LRD 204.834028
LSL 20.380353
LTL 3.214565
LVL 0.658527
LYD 5.226265
MAD 10.964563
MDL 19.329184
MGA 4949.462356
MKD 61.575988
MMK 2286.865455
MNT 3740.242466
MOP 8.764236
MRO 388.65567
MUR 48.298079
MVR 16.722412
MWK 1833.089793
MXN 18.710137
MYR 5.087406
MZN 68.858442
NAD 20.260594
NGN 858.962479
NIO 39.851516
NOK 11.695422
NPR 145.091296
NZD 1.75366
OMR 0.419181
PAB 1.089022
PEN 4.073888
PGK 4.060098
PHP 60.257448
PKR 306.687194
PLN 4.340897
PYG 8102.20892
QAR 3.963583
RON 4.954587
RSD 117.166255
RUB 99.314133
RWF 1353.532558
SAR 4.083939
SBD 9.227524
SCR 14.561028
SDG 654.292162
SEK 11.356791
SGD 1.451857
SHP 1.324642
SLE 24.750966
SLL 21501.269766
SOS 622.179962
SRD 41.168675
STD 22533.309653
SYP 14154.695272
SZL 20.319477
THB 37.96239
TJS 11.907889
TMT 3.821238
TND 3.389077
TOP 2.567201
TRY 31.462403
TTD 7.38772
TWD 34.030835
TZS 2727.85026
UAH 39.712216
UGX 4141.040178
USD 1.088672
UYU 42.579566
UZS 13394.42629
VEF 3868485.236161
VES 38.687206
VND 26443.839679
VUV 129.267066
WST 2.921028
XAF 655.488487
XAG 0.042719
XAU 0.000525
XCD 2.942191
XDR 0.818215
XOF 655.488487
XPF 119.591001
YER 272.549398
ZAR 20.313315
ZMK 9799.35713
ZMW 25.863514
ZWL 350.551897
  • SCU

    -0.0300

    12.72

    -0.24%

  • NGG

    0.8300

    66.84

    +1.24%

  • BCE

    0.9200

    40.31

    +2.28%

  • SCS

    0.1500

    12.46

    +1.2%

  • SLAC

    0.0390

    10.29

    +0.38%

  • CMSC

    0.0600

    24.61

    +0.24%

  • CMSD

    0.1800

    24.33

    +0.74%

  • RBGPF

    0.3720

    68.01

    +0.55%

  • JRI

    0.2100

    11.28

    +1.86%

  • RIO

    2.0700

    71.16

    +2.91%

  • BCC

    3.0900

    112.39

    +2.75%

  • RELX

    -0.0200

    38.56

    -0.05%

  • AZN

    0.2000

    64.79

    +0.31%

  • GSK

    0.5800

    36.57

    +1.59%

  • VOD

    0.1600

    9.22

    +1.74%

  • RYCEF

    0.1043

    3.53

    +2.95%

  • BP

    -0.3100

    35.98

    -0.86%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    32.04

    +0.47%

Asia trade talk stumble is another setback for US: analysts
Asia trade talk stumble is another setback for US: analysts / Photo: Jason Henry - AFP

Asia trade talk stumble is another setback for US: analysts

The United States stumbled again in trade negotiations with Asia-Pacific partners this week, a setback that analysts say could weigh on America's standing as a partner in the face of China's growing influence.

Text size:

While Washington had for decades used free-trade pacts to forge relationships around the world, a more isolationist mood has gripped domestic politics.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) failed to materialize at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, holed by US fears over the impact on workers at home.

Pushback from President Joe Biden's own party underscores the challenges, with congressional Democrats concerned it could impact their prospects in next year's elections.

A failure to deliver IPEF could look like a replay of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which former president Donald Trump denounced as bad for US jobs.

One of his first actions in office was to yank the US out of the TPP, a huge multi-national deal yoking major Asian allies that had been years in the making, and which had been a key plank of foreign policy.

That withdrawal smarted in Asian capitals, particularly in Japan which had worked for years on the project.

The White House insists IPEF is not dead, just that it needs a bit more work to get it over the line.

- 'Imbalance' -

But, say analysts, the US is skating on thin ice.

"To see the United States fail to deliver on trade negotiations in the Indo-Pacific again would further damage US credibility as a trade partner in the future," said Thibault Denamiel of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Into that breach steps China, whose lavish spending on infrastructure projects all around the world over the last few decades -- under its Belt and Road Initiative -- have won it friends and favor in many places.

Beijing has also forged its own Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with 14 other Pacific-rim countries, all resulting in "an imbalance in economic engagement" in favor of Beijing, said Denamiel.

IPEF could help rebalance that, he told AFP.

While IPEF falls short of a traditional multinational deal -- it doesn't include market access -- participants have hoped it would lead to greater US engagement, analysts say.

US officials and partners this week trumpeted the conclusion of talks on three of four segments in IPEF, which seeks to create common rules and standards across countries that make up 40 percent of the global economy.

Leaders signed a deal on supply chains, and reached agreements on climate and anticorruption.

Trade remains the last holdout, a blow to Biden who launched the initiative last year bringing together the United States and 13 other nations -- including Japan, India and much of Southeast Asia, although notably not China.

- Durable partner -

Asia Society Policy Institute vice president Wendy Cutler noted the lack of a deal "is a major setback for US trade policy."

Beijing's active trade agenda ought to nudge Washington towards a "bolder approach," or it risks having its influence undermined as partners work with each other and China, Cutler argued in an earlier commentary.

While she conceded a November deadline was "ambitious" as trade talks typically require more time, she warned that prospects are slim for further progress as the 2024 elections draw close -- the trade section has drawn criticism in part due to a lack of worker protections, an issue that looms large for US voters.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo lauded progress this week at the APEC summit in San Francisco.

She said agreements on climate, the energy transition and combating corruption were worthwhile, as was the creation of a ministerial council for cooperation.

IPEF, she said, "was never conceived to be a trade agreement."

She added in separate remarks that the US aims to be a "durable force and partner" in the Asia-Pacific, a region from which it had been largely absent in the years before Biden took office.

- Difficult reality -

It is "difficult to judge" the scale of commitments made without the full texts of the latest agreements, said Inu Manak, a fellow for trade policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"It is concerning that the trade pillar was not concluded because the IPEF has been pitched as the answer to US withdrawal from the TPP," she added.

"One of the most difficult realities of the last few years has been that the United States has stepped down from its leadership role on trade," Manak told AFP.

"Even if the IPEF trade pillar is concluded, the absence of high standard digital trade rules would weaken its overall value."

(F.Schuster--BBZ)