US-led pact 'political rhetoric', says Cambodian scholar

PHNOM PENH－The so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, led by the United States is more political rhetoric than a free-trade agreement, a renowned Cambodian scholar has said.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the IPEF was designed to disrupt regional collaboration and foment divisions among countries in ASEAN.

"IPEF is not a free-trade agreement. No market access or tariff reductions have been outlined," he said. "It's more symbolic than effective. It's political rhetoric rather than concrete action."

The IPEF's establishment by US President Joe Biden is another strategy to counter China in the region and compete with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, Phea said.

"The US has tried to contain and encircle China by establishing many layers of alliances, including the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among the US, Japan, Australia and India (Quad), the military pact among the US, Britain and Australia (AUKUS), and the Five Eyes," he said.

The US would use the IPEF as another tool to solidify its relationships with a dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific region in its political endeavor to contain China, Phea said.

"The IPEF could be another cause of tension in trade friction between China and the US and would bring more geopolitical complexity."

China, as the backbone of the world economy, is always ready to work with others to restore confidence in multilateralism and globalization, build an open and pluralistic world economy and blaze a new trail in inclusive growth and sustainable development, to shape a brighter shared future, he said.

Phea said the IPEF cannot be compared with the RCEP, which is multilateral and collaborative and whose structure is meant to benefit all participating countries because all will be governed under the same trade rules.

"The RCEP is instrumental in subverting creeping unilateralism because it pulls all bilateral free trade agreements into one economic sphere, under one blanket trade ruling," Phea said.

"The RCEP highlights the joint efforts to cement a very solid basis for global prosperity."

Entering into force on Jan 1, the RCEP is a mega trade agreement between 10 ASEAN member states, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and its five major trading partners, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Xinhua