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Japan welcomes new US Indo-Pacific economic initiative
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Noriyuki Shikata, cabinet secretary for public affairs of Kishida's government, gets introduced before he speaks in a news briefing in Tokyo, Friday, May 20, 2022. Japan welcomes the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), a new U.S. economic initiative for the Indo-Pacific region that President Biden is expected to roll out during his Tokyo visit next week. Shikata said IPEF is expected to focus more about supply chains, clean energy, worker standards and anti-corruption programs rather than issues in traditional trade agreements such as market access and tariffs. - photo by AP Photo/Hiro Komae
TOKYO (AP) — Japan welcomes a new U.S. economic initiative for the Indo-Pacific that President Joe Biden is expected to roll out during a visit to Tokyo next week because it demonstrates American commitment to a regional economic order that is not just about market access, an official said Friday. Biden is proposing the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the United States dropped out of in 2017 under former President Donald Trump. Japan played a key role in bringing together the other 11 members of that pact, now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.