Aims and limits of Biden’s economic plan for the Indo-Pacific
Objectives and scenarios of the new economic alliance for the Indo-Pacific (IPEF) wanted by the American president Biden. Italics by Giuseppe Gagliano
The new economic alliance for the Indo-Pacific (IPEF) created by the American president, Joe Biden, during his visit to Japan materializes his desire to create an economic network with his allies beyond the realm of military security, to put pressure on Beijing.
A total of 13 countries joined, including the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia. There are also seven out of ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
South Korean head of state Yoon Suk-yeol attended the founding ceremony via videoconference. For Seoul, the IPEF is not meant to exclude some nations, but to stabilize supply chains, and it is natural for South Korea to participate in creating trade regulations for the Indo-Pacific region.
The new economic framework will focus on four issues: foreign trade, supply chains, carbon exit and infrastructure, as well as the fight against tax fraud and corruption.
Let's now make a geopolitical assessment.
First, the IPEF is a move by the Biden administration to lend credibility to its economic commitment to Asia as a credible counterweight to China. It is designed to project the United States into the economic leadership of the Indo-Pacific region.
Secondly, through this agreement the US administration would like to dominate the rules and standards of both artificial intelligence and 5G. But the rules of digital commerce and technology that the United States wants to promote are too "American" and many countries in the region simply cannot meet the so-called high standards.
Third, the US purpose of isolating China from regional countries is very likely to make implementation of the IPEF rather problematic to the extent that the agreement in place serves US interests at the expense of regional countries. setting higher thresholds on the digital economy, environmental protection and other sectors in line with US economic policies.
Fifth, the countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations do not intend to decouple from China also because the existing pattern of supply chain splitting has lasted a long time and has benefited the Indo-Pacific countries. .
Sixth, China with the regional global economic partnership offers many more opportunities to its allies while the current agreement has little to offer. In fact, there are no tangible economic benefits such as the opening of the American market to the Asian economy. In this regard – at least at present – there are no mechanisms for accessing the market or reducing tariffs within the agreement.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/biden-framework-economico-indo-pacifico/ on Sun, 29 May 2022 05:50:25 +0000.