Shaheen Joins Bipartisan Call for Administration to Use New Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to Set Global Standards on Digital Trade

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), John Cornyn (R-TX), Todd Young (R-IN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Tom Carper (D-DE) in a bipartisan letter calling on the administration to ensure that President Biden’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework pushes the world forward on issues of digital trade, technology and decarbonization. They also urged the administration to put digital trade at the forefront of the nation’s global economic agenda going forward, including by working with our allies in the Indo-Pacific. 

“We welcome President Biden’s announcement at the East Asia Summit that the United States will work with regional partners to develop a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. This is a positive step toward a more comprehensive trade agreement in the region. Many of the United States’ most significant trading partners and closest allies are in the Indo-Pacific, and deepening our economic engagement with those foreign partners will benefit American workers and our economy, and strengthen our strategic position in the region. We should use our engagement in the region to support a prosperous, free Indo-Pacific, to advance and support a rules-based international trading system anchored by democratic values and market-based economics, and to bring about less carbon-intensive global economy,” the Senators wrote.

“In his announcement, President Biden identified several focus areas for the new Framework, including the development of standards for the digital economy and technology,” the Senators continued. “We strongly agree that digital trade must be at the core of the U.S. Government’s global economic agenda in the coming decades, and we encourage the Biden Administration to develop a focused and forward-leaning plan for engaging our allies in the Indo-Pacific on these critical issues.”

“This is a moment that calls for creative rethinking of our international economic priorities and global leadership in implementing a new strategy. We look to you to show such leadership in the development of this new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework,” the Senators concluded in their letter.

The full text of the letter is available here.

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