The United States, Japan and other nations in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to reach a broad agreement on economic rule-making during their ministerial meeting next week but will not broach the thorny issue of setting digital trade standards, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
The envisioned agreement in San Francisco comes as the 14 members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework rush to devise deliverables on rules that can be implemented in a region where China is expanding its clout.
Launched in May last year, IPEF has focused on establishing what members call "high-standard commitments" to deepen economic engagement on four pillars -- trade, supply chain resilience, clean energy, and proper taxation along with anti-corruption efforts.
Having already agreed to strengthen supply chain resilience for critical items such as semiconductors and medicines in May this year, the IPEF countries are aiming to broadly agree on the remaining three pillars during the two-day ministerial meeting to start Monday in the U.S. West Coast city, according to the sources.
But a negotiation source pointed to the difficulty of agreeing on all aspects of the trade pillar, with talks on digital trade to be suspended in the wake of the U.S. government's reversal of its position on e-commerce that backed free data flows and other issues amid concerns that the approach was too friendly to IT giants.
Any agreement on the trade pillar is likely to be limited to issues to facilitate trade, such as through simplified procedures.
IPEF groups the United States, Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
The IPEF ministerial meeting will take place ahead of a leaders gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco, also slated for next week.
