At The Asia-Pacific Council of American Chamber’s (APCAC) Spring Conference in Singapore in March, Asia Pacific’s American business leaders have called on Washington to bolster trade and investment links with the region as a means to strengthen the US economy.
In particular, APCAC urged the Obama administration to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade area and pursue the streamlining of customs procedures and financial policies among the region’s economies.
According to a report by the APCAC, the body believes that the US government’s Asian trade policy can best strengthen the American economy ... with trade and investment initiatives oriented towards partnership with the region.
"The acceleration of regional integration to create larger markets is one of the best ways to stimulate growth in Asia and the US. The US [will gain] from Asian prosperity,” says the report.
To this end Washington should pursue negotiations to join and expand the TPP free trade area, which is currently limited to Brunei, Chile, Singapore, and New Zealand.
"Coupled with greater ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) integration, TPP could be the foundation of a broad Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific," the APCAC said.
The US announced in September last year its interest to join the TPP, which was formed in 2006. The US Trade Representative Office tagged this negotiation as among the Washington’s priorities in its 2009 Trade Policy Agenda report, noting that Asia Pacific accounts for almost half of all global trade.
In keeping with its calls for trade liberalization, the APCAC also recommended that the US government reject "self-defeating Buy America provisions ... that prevent foreign companies from competing for US projects" in its stimulus packages.
The APCAC also urged Washington to pursue bilateral investment treaties with countries in the region and to throw its support behind the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s "single window" which aims to streamline customs handling of traded goods.
The US must also work with the region’s initiatives to prop up and harmonize the regulation of financial systems, the APCAC added.
Washington would also do well to continue encouraging the region’s leaders to uphold intellectual property rights.
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