US seeks lead in crafting Asia trade vision

BIG SKY, Montana (AFP) – The United States is looking to forge a new vision on free trade that boosts its role in Asia while assuaging public concerns as officials from the Pacific Rim prepare to meet at a mountain resort.

Trade representatives from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum gather Wednesday in Big Sky, Montana — near sprawling Yellowstone National Park — to help lay out an agenda for a wide-ranging trade pact.

President Barack Obama has set an ambitious goal of doubling US exports to boost the uncertain economy. He also hopes trade can serve as a tangible tool to increase US influence around Asia, where the rise of China is looming large.

At the heart of Obama’s efforts are negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which involves nine APEC countries. The Big Sky talks will look at how to meet a self-set deadline of reaching a framework TPP deal by November.

The Obama administration has embraced the TPP as a way to create what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called a “cutting-edge, next-generation trade deal” that eliminates tariffs but also enforces labor and environmental standards and encourages green technologies.

“These goals matter to all of us, and they should especially matter to those emerging economies that are growing at such a rapid rate,” Clinton told APEC officials in March in Washington.

Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis recently called the TPP “the singularly most important platform for regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific.”

Ernie Bower, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the TPP differed from China’s vision of an Asian economic integration with few conditions attached.

“I think there’s a real view, although no one will probably articulate it, that there needs to be a balancing trade initiative compared with what the Chinese are offering,” Bower said.

But a number of disputes have already arisen in preliminary talks on the TPP, which involves Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

In one particular area of contention, some US lawmakers from farm states have demanded the exclusion of dairy from any deal, fearing intense competition from New Zealand, the world’s largest dairy exporter.

Activists in Australia and New Zealand have also been wary of reducing barriers to US pharmaceuticals, fearing the move would chip away at the countries’ social safety nets.

Obama has faced a backlash from his Democratic Party’s base of organized labor in pursuing free trade agreements.

His administration renegotiated trade pacts first sealed under President George W. Bush with South Korea, Panama and Colombia. But some labor leaders remain concerned, while the rival Republican Party accuses Obama of not moving quickly enough.

Bower said that the TPP offered a chance for Obama to say, “we’re doing trade in a new way — this is not George Bush’s free trade agreement.”

Supporters of the TPP hope that the completion of a deal could encourage other countries to join — creating a rare success story in trade diplomacy amid the virtual collapse of the World Trade Organization’s Doha round.

Chan Heng Chee, Singapore’s ambassador to Washington, said the TPP’s ambition was to create a “template” that more countries could sign on to, eventually creating a free trade agreement stretching across the Asia-Pacific region.

A number of countries have flirted with joining talks. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan supports the TPP but faces strong opposition from farmers and put off a decision following his country’s devastating March 11 earthquake.

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