Beijing, Aug. 8 (People’s Daily Online) - The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) proposed by the United States during Mr. Biden’s trip to Japan is ideological, divisive, and does not serve the people’s interests in Asia. As former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has rightly pointed out, the IPEF championed by US President Joe Biden is inherently political, since it excludes China. Indeed, the IPEF is too ideological to leave any space for economics. The four pillars laid out in IPEF are like a laundry list of American policy requests. It raises widespread concerns among countries in Asia.

"Firstly, The United State claimed that IPEF is “free and fair”, but it is not. The four pillars have nothing to do with tariff reduction and market access, which means that the US has not prepared to open its markets to exporters from Asia. An economic framework without market access is detached from the reality in Asia, as trade is still much needed for developing Asia to grow its economies. As many commentators have pointed out, the IPEF is designed to serve the interests of US corporates rather than the interests of the people. By including the digital economy as a pillar, the USTR has an important agenda of promoting its big techs in Asia and creating new markets on their behalf, dominating the rules and standards of digital technologies, which are a proxy for realizing US geopolitical goals. IPEF is proving once again the US’s long tradition of writing rules for its mega-corporations, rather than workers from both in Asia and the US."

Read original: http://en.people.cn/n3/2022/0802/c90000-10130102.html
=FRESH NEWS