On January 29, 2024, the Centre on Asia and Globalisation hosted a Roundtable on “IPEF and why Washington cannot win against China without a trade offer?” moderated by Dr. Denis Hew, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The speaker was Dr. Heribert Dieter, a Senior Fellow in the Global Issues Research Unit at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.
Dr. Dieter began by saying that the US trade policy has become very protectionist. Trade in the US is not seen as an opportunity and many people are concerned about the negative effects of trade, especially on producers. This prevailing perception has made global trade difficult. The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) has been labelled as the “Indo-Pacific Empty Framework” due to a lack of substantial efforts in trade liberalization. Without substantial effort from the US and a reluctance to work with China, he emphasized how there was no advocate for a global trade policy amid geopolitical competition. Dr. Dieter also critiqued the European Union’s (EU) insufficient involvement in the geopolitical conflict with China. He explained how the EU has invariably isolated itself from the international arena. This isolation has hindered cooperation with countries in the global South, including India.
He concluded his presentation by arguing that the current multilateral trading system is over and that countries not only need to better manage their own trade policies, but also engage in more policy discussions on the future development of international trade.