With No FTA Plans, IPEF Lacks Durability, Former Official Says

The Biden administration needs a more “credible, durable economic strategy” in the Indo-Pacific than the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, such as one that involves formal trade agreements, said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a July 31 commentary for CSIS, Goodman, a former National Security Council official, said IPEF’s “greatest promise” is “as an incubator for new or revised provisions of a formal trade agreement in the Indo-Pacific region,” including one that includes new or updated chapters on labor, environment, digital standards, supply chain resilience and economic coercion.

But so far the administration has been “explicit that it does not intend to negotiate a traditional trade agreement through IPEF,” Goodman said, “nor has it signaled an intention to continue IPEF past the end of this year.” He said it should be a “priority” to keep IPEF alive until early 2025 “when the next administration -- Biden or otherwise -- might return to formal trade negotiations.” Goodman warned that formal trade deals are being negotiated in the region without the U.S., which will have a “lasting impact on economic rules and norms in the region and beyond.”