Letters | Why the US must not give up its leading role in the Asia-Pacific

Today, the economies of the Asia-Pacific are more essential to the lives of more people than at any previous moment in history. That recognition underlies why it is imperative for the United States to demonstrate its economic stewardship in the region. An Asia-Pacific bereft of American economic leadership likely poses long-term deleterious consequences for global economic order.

American policymakers and private sector executives have been committed to ushering in vital market-based economic reforms across the Asia-Pacific. Those reforms have centred on the development of the region’s financial and capital markets and the global integration of Asia-Pacific markets. The resulting effects have been transformative: hundreds of millions of people no longer live in poverty, Asia-Pacific economies currently account for more than 35 per cent of global GDP, and populations worldwide rely on the region for new technological innovations, crucial supply chains, and interconnected digital networks.

While not inconceivable, the probability that the Asia-Pacific’s significance to the global economy will fade measurably within the foreseeable future is de minimis.

And yet, today, those historic commitments appear to be fraying.