US to host virtual meet for Indo-Pacific trade talks
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WASHINGTON • The United States will host a virtual meeting today of officials representing the 14 countries that have joined the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), as Washington seeks to expand its engagement with Asia.
The ministerial meeting will be hosted by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, their offices announced in a statement on Sunday.
President Joe Biden, who launched the IPEF in May on a trip to Tokyo, wants to use it as a way to raise environmental, labour and other standards across Asia.
Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since former president Donald Trump quit a multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, leaving the field open to China to expand its influence.
In addition to the US, the IPEF members comprise Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Topics for discussion at today's meeting include trade, supply chains, clean energy, infrastructure, taxes and combating corruption, the statement said.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy plan next month to visit the Solomon Islands, where their fathers fought in World War II and the US is now in a modern-day battle for influence with strategic rival China.
Ms Sherman and her delegation will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal during her Aug 6 to 8 visit, and meet senior officials "to highlight the enduring relationship between the United States and Solomon Islands" and the opening of a US embassy in the capital Honiara, a senior State Department official told Reuters on Sunday.
Ms Sherman will be the latest senior US official to visit the Pacific region as Washington steps up efforts to push back against Chinese diplomatic inroads.
The State Department official said the visit would also be of personal interest to Ms Sherman, whose father, Mr Mal Sherman, was a Marine wounded at the Battle of Guadalcanal, which began in August 1942 between Allied and Japanese forces.
Ms Kennedy's father, assassinated US president John F. Kennedy, took part in the Solomon Islands campaign as a patrol boat captain in World War II.
REUTERS
