Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined President Joe Biden on his May 21-24 trip to Japan, during which the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) was launched.
Biden’s visit was his first official trip to Asia as president of the United States. During their visit, Blinken met with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa to discuss events, including the country's response to Ukraine, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the IPEF, a State Department release said.
“Great to join @POTUS & our partners in launching the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Tokyo,” Blinken said in a May 23 post on Twitter. “IPEF will deepen U.S. engagement & expand our collaboration to take on the most important economic issues we face today. America is invested in the future of a #FreeandOpenIndoPacific.”
The United States invested more than $969 billion in the region in 2020, according to a White House fact sheet on IPEF. Foreign trade with the Indo-Pacific region supports more than 3 million American jobs and is the source of nearly $900 billion in foreign direct investment into the U.S.
Policymakers believe this region’s population and its projected growth in the next 30 years, will be the largest source of global growth and developed the IPEF in response. It addresses challenges that past models of economic engagement neglected, specifically fragile supply chains, corruption and tax havens, the fact sheet said.
An opposing view on the formation of IPEF claims it resulted from President Biden's inability to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Trump administration pulled the U.S out of in 2017, the Associated Press reported May 23. The IPEF is a modified replacement program that will include efforts to protect U.S workers from job losses.
The IPEF has 13 members, including the U.S, that makeup 40% of global gross domestic product, according to the AP article.
