Biden Can Win Friends and Influence With a Digital Trade Deal
There’s a chance to move past the TPP and outflank China with a buffet approach to aspiring countries in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Taking another look at trade deals in Asia.
Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg
The U.S. is back in Asia. White House officials are exploring a digital trade deal for the Indo-Pacific region to check China’s influence, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with proposals that are currently being drafted.
The specifics are vague, but a meaningful trade agreement is just what the pandemic-ravaged global economy needs to shake off its ennui. Online content and e-commerce have proven their resilience to social distancing and physical lockdowns. That makes a digital trade accord — a set of common standards on how online data and their processors from one country will be treated in another — the perfect vehicle for President Joe Biden’s much-awaited Asia pivot. It can also be a powerful tool for countering Beijing.