US ‘being left behind’ in trade

WASHINGTON: The US Chamber of Commerce said yesterday it was concerned the United States was being left behind after 15 AsiaPacific economies formed the world's largest freetrade bloc, cementing China's dominant role in regional trade.

The chamber welcomed the tradeliberalising benefits of the new Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP), saying US exporters, workers and farmers needed greater access to Asian markets. But it said Washington should not join the bloc.

RCEP covers 30% of the global economy and 30% of the global population, joining for the first time Asian powers China, Japan and South Korea. It aims in coming years to progressively lower tariffs across many areas.

The US is absent from both RCEP and the successor to the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), leaving the world's biggest economy out of two trade groups spanning the world's fastestgrowing region.

Myron Brilliant, executive vicepresident of the chamber, said the Trump Administration had moved to confront unfair trade practices by China but secured only limited new opportunities for US exporters in other parts of Asia.

President Donald Trump in

early 2017 quit the TPP agreement, which his predecessor, Barack Obama, had negotiated.

``The United States should adopt a more forwardlooking, strategic effort to maintain a solid US economic presence in the region,'' Brilliant said.

``Otherwise, we risk being on the outside looking in as one of the world’s primary engines of growth hums along without us.'' Brilliant underscored the importance of the AsiaPacific market, citing forecasts of an average growth rate of over 5% in 2021. — Reuters