The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Feb. 4 that the U.S. will join negotiations on investment and financial services that are set to begin in March among Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. The USTR notes that while a free trade agreement (the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) between the so-called “P-4” nations entered into force in 2006, the investment and financial services chapters of that agreement remain to be negotiated.
USTR Susan Schwab stated that these talks are part of the United States’ efforts to “participate in the regional trade architecture that is emerging in the vitally important Asia-Pacific region.” Concurrent with the negotiations, Schwab said, the U.S. will launch a detailed exploratory process involving Congress and other stakeholders to determine whether it should participate in the full TSEP. Such involvement “could provide a pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration with like-minded countries committed to high-standard agreements,” she said. The U.S. is also pursuing this objective through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which is in the process of considering a possible Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, as well as through bilateral free trade agreements like the one now pending with South Korea.
A USTR press release explained the U.S. interest in remaining economically engaged in Asia by pointing out that this region is a “key driver of global economic growth, representing nearly 60 percent of global GDP and roughly 50 percent of international trade.” Since 1990, total goods trade by Asia-Pacific economies has increased by 300 percent and global investment in the region has risen by over 400 percent. U.S. goods and services trade with the region exceeded $2 trillion in 2006 and has more than doubled in the last 12 years.
But Asia-Pacific countries are actively pursuing preferential trade agreements with each other as well as partners outside the region, the USTR added, a trend that has important commercial and strategic implications for the U.S. As of the beginning of 2008, the press release noted, approximately 100 bilateral and regional trade agreements were in force in the Asia-Pacific region, more than three times the number in 1990, and another 50 or so were being negotiated.
World Trade/Interactive
