US commerce secretary hails progress at year's first meeting of Indo-Pacific trade grouping

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday praised the progress made by the 14 countries in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity after the group held a ministerial meeting Thursday to discuss proposed guidelines for regional commerce.

Raimondo was in the Thai capital Bangkok to take part in the virtual meeting, the year's first for the grouping. She is on an Asia tour that also took her to the Philippines this week with a private sector delegation to promote trade, investment and the diversification of global supply chains, especially for semiconductors.

Washington launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, in May 2022 to establish a zone of economic cooperation in a region that is estimated to account for 40% of global GDP.

Its members are Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.

The group is supposed to uphold four pillars: trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy. The goal is to advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness and competitiveness for those economies involved, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Raimondo commended progress on documents setting guidelines for the latter three pillars — supply chain, clean economy and fair economy, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Commerce Department.

But the statement notably made no mention of the first pillar, trade, which has not been substantially addressed by the group.

Open market access would benefit most Asian members, but could be politically unfeasible for U.S. President Joe Biden, who must rely heavily on support from voters in swing states