Out of the limelight of public awareness, a deal is being forged right now between the United States and 13 major economies in the Indo-Pacific region that would cover 28% of all global goods and services trade and 40% of global gross production.
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) was launched on May 23, 2022, by the Biden Administration. The “framework” sets up the basis for trade negotiations in the Indo-Pacific region, covering such topics as digital trade and ecommerce, mineral supply chains, carbon removal and methane regulations, and tax enforcement information sharing and anticorruption enforcement. It is an ambitious and comprehensive deal that will shape the future of the Indo-Pacific region. As of now, the 14 partner countries include Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.
Trade deals such as these are easy to get wrong. It was not long ago that the details of another trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, were released after six years of secretive negotiations. We wrote at the time, in 2016, of our criticisms of that deal. We opposed provisions that would have allowed corporations to sue countries for lost profits if environmental regulations limited business, and the failure of the trade deal to protect labor rights. The Trump Administration formally withdrew the United States from the trade deal almost exactly a year later.
There are some encouraging signs about current IPEF negotiations so far. For one, the system which allows corporations to sue countries, the investor-state dispute settlement system, has been rejected in the earliest drafts. This has significant implications for the environment since these trade provisions have been used to overrule domestic and democratic laws that encourage “buy local” campaigns or raise environmental or labor standards. Most recently, some more extreme digital trade proposals have been withdrawn, including those that would give tech firms unfettered use of user data and artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, there remain concerns that workers’ rights will not be adequately addressed in the final trade deal. The initial list of countries selected as IPEF partners includes many with records of labor rights violations, including unionist assassinations, human trafficking, forced labor, child labor and more. It does not benefit the people of any country when the work of trades protected by labor unions is outsourced to countries where workers lack protections and are prey to human rights violators or to multinational organizations that deny them the value of their labor.
The Indo-Pacific Framework for Prosperity is too powerful to be ignored by the public: it deserves our attention. In it lies the potential for a more connected economic world, with a unified front against climate change, tax evasion, human rights violations and corruption — or the license for a privileged few to further plunder the planet and its resources. It is the details of the IPEF that will decide which direction the world takes.
FAITH IN ACTION:
• See a faith letter to the U.S. Trade Representative on IPEF signed by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns that outlines areas of priority: https://mogc.info/IPEF-letter
• Read the Maryknoll leadership statement on trade and investment, “Trade in Justice: The local impact of global economic decisions” from 2002 – still relevant today: https://mogc.info/Trading-in-Justice
• Sign the petition organized by the Trade Justice Education Fund to Prioritize Working People & the Planet in Indo-Pacific Trade Deal: https://mogc.info/IPEF-TJEF
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, based in Washington, D.C., is a resource for Maryknoll on matters of peace, social justice and integrity of creation, and brings Maryknoll’s mission experience into U.S. policy discussions. Phone (202) 832-1780, visit www.maryknollogc.org or email ogc@maryknollogc.org.
Featured Image: A vendor arranges vegetables at a market in Manila. The Philippines is one of 13 Indo-Pacific countries joining the U.S. in a trade agreement. (Dondi Tawatao/Reuters/CNS/Philippines)
