Joe Biden launches Indo-Pacific trade deal, warns over inflation

TOKYO (AP) — President Biden on Monday launched a new trade deal with 12 Indo-Pacific nations aimed at strengthening their economies as he warned Americans worried about high inflation that it was “going to be a haul” before they feel relief.

The president said he does not believe an economic recession is inevitable in the U.S.

The comments came just before Biden‘s launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a new trade deal his administration designed to signal U.S.

in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework are Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The White House said the framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts.

framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the U.S.

I’m happy to be involved,’” said Matthew Goodman, a former director for international economics on the National Security Council during President Barack Obama’s administration.

Kishida said at their meeting that he was “absolutely delighted” to welcome Biden to Tokyo on the first Asia trip of his presidency.

The White House announced plans to build the economic framework in October as a replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the U.S.

Kishida, while welcoming the new Biden trade pact, said he hoped Biden would reconsider the United States’ position on TPP.

“The fact that the United States will grow faster than China this year, for the first time since 1976, is a quite striking example of how countries in this region should be looking at the question of trends and trajectories,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, also known as IPEF, has been billed by the White House as one of the bigger moments of Biden‘s Asia trip and of his ongoing effort to bolster ties with Pacific allies.

Participation of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, would have irked Beijing.

wants to deepen its economic partnership with Taiwan, including on high technology issues and semiconductor supply on a one-to-one basis.

Biden also issued a stern warning to China over Taiwan, saying the U.S.

A White House official said Biden’s comments did not reflect a policy shift