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Agricultural trade and standards within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

September 7, 2022

Steve Suppan

On September 8-9 in Los Angeles, officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Department of Commerce will meet with their counterparts from 13 countries to make initial commitments to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) on topics for future discussion. IPEF members, as of mid-July, are Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. As explained below, the proposed four pillar structure of IPEF differs somewhat from the traditional United States trade policy focus on maximizing U.S. exports. If IPEF governments commit to work on all four pillars and follow through on their commitments, there is a chance that trade policy will be pulled kicking and screaming into the 21st century. There is a real risk, however, that abuse of scientific evidence in standards setting, implementation and enforcement will lock in outdated approaches to enabling agricultural trade, food safety, environmental health and public health.

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