ITI Welcomes Launch of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity and Looks Forward to Concrete Next Steps
WASHINGTON –Today, global tech trade association ITI released the following statement from its President and CEO Jason Oxman welcoming the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) by the United States, Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam:
“We welcome the commitment by the United States and a dozen partners to advance a meaningful trade agenda in the Indo-Pacific region. This framework stands to enhance economic prosperity for both the Indo-Pacific and the United States and serves as an important tool to strengthen U.S. economic, diplomatic, and strategic commitments in the region. We look forward to learning more details of the agreement, and encourage the U.S. to prioritize expanding market access, promoting inclusive digital trade rules, aligning with regional and global frameworks, enabling cross-border data flows, and encouraging diverse, open, and resilient supply chains. We urge all parties to seize this important opportunity to move forward with ambitious, concrete actions that reflect the realities of modern global trade. ITI looks forward to partnering with governments to advance this effort.”
Ahead of President Biden’s visit, ITI developed the Trusted Digital Partnership Program (opens in a new tab) based on its recent comments (opens in a new tab) to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) regarding the IPEF. The proposed program encourages investments by technology companies and facilitates business partnerships by incentivizing partner economies to adopt digital trade-facilitative regulatory policies and deploying capacity building and technical assistance to achieve these commitments.
ITI also outlined the global tech industry’s Indo-Pacific digital trade policy priorities in a blog (opens in a new tab) in January 2022 and a letter (opens in a new tab) to USTR Katherine Tai in September 2021.
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