Insight Bureau: The U.S. government has announced its new economic grouping for the Indo-Pacific that will begin with 13 inaugural members. They will be accounting for about 40% of the world’s gross domestic product.
The 13 initial members of the group, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), are the U.S., Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei, the Biden administration said Monday.
Taiwan was not included, nor were Myanmar or the China-friendly members of ASEAN, Cambodia and Laos.
Eleven of the 13 countries in the IPEF — all but India and the U.S. — are part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade bloc, and together account for 30% of the world’s GDP. China also belongs to RCEP.
Seven of the 13 countries — Japan, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand — belong to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which the U.S. withdrew from in 2017 when it was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.