International express service company tells you In a fresh sign that the US' at its wits end trying to rebuild economic
clout in the Asia-Pacific region, something that has faded into
invisibility since its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) in 2017, the Biden administration is purportedly ready to unveil a
new economic strategy for the region, where a China-participating mega
trade deal has been all the rage.
The new Indo-Pacific Economic
Framework, envisioned to fix the US' trade gap in its Asia-Pacific
strategy without offering genuine pro-trade incentives, crystallizes the
hypocrisy of the US government that intends to exploit the regional
digital trade prowess and supply chain robustness for its self-motivated
confrontation against China.
On the part of major regional
economies that have increasingly benefited from their economic and
supply chain closeness with China, it has never been clearer which
country is the real threat to regional integration and world order.
The
new framework, the Biden administration's first broad economic strategy
for the region, is expected to be unveiled within weeks, according to
the Wall Street Journal.
As part of the new strategy, Washington
is eyeing more intimacy with the region on digital trade, supply chain,
among other issues, according to the report. It disclosed however that
the Biden administration isn't ready for the offering of which its
trading partners truly aspire for, such as tariff cuts and
market-opening measures.
That US jobs and manufacturing might be
put at a disadvantage in case of the introduction of pro-trade measures
was cited as dissuading the Biden administration from taking any
substantial moves, in a manner reminiscent of the US' habitual use of
similar excuses to justify its multi-pronged trade war.
Instead
of striving for true benefits for the Asia-Pacific region that has never
been more integrated with the implementation of the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the US has unmasked itself as
a true troublemaker.
Years after its TPP exit and a deliberate
indifference to the new iteration of TPP, the Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the US has
portrayed itself as a negligible part of regional trade. That means the
regional trade regime and supply chains have been well up and running
without the US engagement and if Washington has plans for reengagement
to avail its strategic face-off against China, the regional economy
would be at risk of supply chain chaos.
China's supply chain
resilience and its digital trade strength are considered a pillar of the
global economic recovery amid COVID-19. Adding wings to the tiger, the
15-member RCEP, the world's largest free trade agreement encompassing
about one-third of the world's GDP, is seen as cementing China's role as
a ballast to regional interconnectedness and global growth.
One
of the RCEP's main highlights is its rules of origin that have widely
been reputed as more accommodating than other regional trade pacts for
businesses to claim tariff preferences. This has apparently consolidated
regional advantages and enhanced regional supply chain integration.
As
of January 25, not even one month after the RCEP's implementation at
the beginning of the year, China's export-oriented firms had been
granted 24,695 certificates of origin and declarations of origin under
the RCEP framework, for 9.25 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) worth of
products, Chinese customs data showed.
China has already applied for CPTPP accession, further establishing itself as a beacon for global trade liberalization.
With
the Asia-Pacific economy gaining a tailwind from RCEP-powered regional
integration, paving the way for the regional economy to grow stronger
amid the China-led economic globalization, what the US has been
hypocritically proposing will most likely end up going unheeded.
The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn