What Biden’s urgent policy priorities mean for Asia, and the world
- The new US president’s focus will be on taming the pandemic at home, not rolling back Trump’s trade measures against China. But the recovery of the US economy, especially the service sector, is critical to boost the global economy
Their hopes may be dashed. In the face of many urgent domestic emergencies, the Biden administration will have to focus in its early days on taming Covid-19 and revamping the government’s pandemic response. Any of Biden’s early foreign policy actions are likely to be about reconnecting the US with global institutions, traditional allies and agreements.
Biden’s priority will be tackling the pandemic and addressing the economic damage it has wrought. Tragically, the US has recently recorded daily averages of around 250,000 new infections and 3,000 deaths. This resurgent wave of the coronavirus is not only putting the health care system under pressure, it is also hurting the economy again.
Underscoring the halting nature of the economic recovery, December data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the number of people travelling to workplaces was down 31 per cent versus pre-pandemic levels, and the number going out to shops and for recreation was down 25 per cent.
02:14
Coronavirus: California’s Disneyland hosts mass Covid-19 vaccination site
So far, more than 16 million single doses of the vaccine have been administered in the US, and the daily vaccination number has risen to almost 900,000. Hence, the 100 million target is plausible if the government can effectively mobilise operations.