Testimony at 'Hearings on the Strategic Benefits of a Multilateral Approach to Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region' by the US Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competition

The testimony argues that the United States has recently disengaged from formal economic cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region, an important historical partner and the world’s fastest-growing economy. Meanwhile, the region has moved ahead with its own agreements, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Estimates of the economic effects of these agreements suggest that they will roughly offset the losses from the US-China trade war for the world, but not for the United States. In fact, these agreements will magnify the effects of the trade war as they disadvantage US trade relative to intra-East Asian trade, at the expense of American businesses and workers. The testimony concludes that the United States should reengage with East Asia quickly through its summit-level consultative mechanisms, and more systematically through a new, inclusive, national strategy for formal relations, such as joining the CPTPP agreement or similar region-wide initiatives