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USTR Katherine Tai under pressure on Asia-Pacific trade pact
- Senate Finance Committee hearing reflects bipartisan support for talks regarding the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
- Tai faces backlash for her backing of a proposal to waive coronavirus vaccine patent protections
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US Trade Representative Katherine Tai came under pressure in a Senate hearing over whether America should seek entry to the Asia-Pacific trade pact that Washington withdrew from in 2017 and faced backlash for her backing of a proposal to waive coronavirus vaccine patent protections.
Tai’s hearing before the Senate Finance Committee reflected strong bipartisan support for talks regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that was revised by the remaining 11 signatories including Japan, Canada and Mexico after former president Donald Trump pulled the US out and came into effect as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in 2018.
“A number of us have talked about the TPP, whether in some revised and updated form, but the geopolitics of that seem very obvious as well as the economic benefits,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas.
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“The one thing that we have in the United States that China does not have is friends, and I think it will do nothing but enhance our national security and our economic security by banding together with like minded countries in the region.”
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China’s exclusion from the TPP, negotiated during the administration of former president Barack Obama, was a key attribute for the US and other countries looking to check the regional influence Beijing had been gaining in tandem with its economic growth, even if such sentiments were never openly expressed.
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