APEC and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)

The United States is hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forums for the first time in a dozen years, and the main item on the agenda is the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) — a massive new trade deal that would set rules governing approximately 40% of the global economy.
Big corporations are working behind closed doors to rig IPEF to increase their power and profits. To get a trade deal that benefits working people and the planet, we need to pull the IPEF negotiations out of the shadows and make demands of our own.  Learn more about competing visions for IPEF below.
Upcoming APEC meetings in Palm Springs in February, Detroit in May, Seattle in August and and San Francisco in November are important opportunities to make our movements heard.

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Write IPEF Negotiators Now! Stop Big Tech’s “digital trade” attack on jobs, wages, and worker rights.

Which Way for IPEF?

DIGITAL TRADE
⬅️ Corporate Power: Big Tech’s IPEF Wishlist
  • Block consumer privacy & data security protections
  • Offshore data-driven and digital economy jobs
  • Evade liability for AI discrimination
  • Rig the rules to build bigger monopolies

➡️ Democracy: Fair “Digital Trade” Rules

  • Put consumer privacy over corporate profits
  • Create good-paying jobs at home and abroad
  • Increase AI transparency and accountability
  • Break up Big Tech monopolies
LABOR RIGHTS
⬅️ Corporate Power: Labor Rights Abuses
  • Offshore good-paying jobs to exploitative low-wage nations
  • Labor assassinations in the Philippines
  • Human trafficking & forced labor in Malaysia
  • Child labor in Vietnam

➡️ Democracy: Worker-Centered Trade

  • Adopt strong labor standards based on ILO Conventions
  • Include facility specific enforcement mechanisms
  • Allow for union organizing across borders
  • Improve on USMCA standards
CLIMATE CHANGE
⬅️ Corporate Power: Fossil Fuel Giants’ IPEF Wishlist
  • Increase resource extraction in the Indo-Pacific region
  • Non-binding, greenwashing climate language
  • New tools to attack real climate action (e.g. bogus “good regulatory practice” rules)
  • Offshore production to nations with weaker environmental standards

➡️ Democracy: Climate Friendly Trade

  • Adopt strong, binding climate commitments
  • Include swift and certain enforcement mechanisms
  • Cut “good regulatory practice” barriers to climate action
  • Include a climate peace clause to end trade attacks on green jobs and other climate initiatives
NEGOTIATING PROCESS
⬅️ Corporate Power: Extreme IPEF Secrecy
  • Closed negotiations that shut out the public & press
  • Secret negotiating text shared with corporate lobbyists
  • Countries bound to secrecy pacts, preventing proposals from being released publicly
  • No formal role for Congress to approve a final deal

➡️ Democracy: Transparent Trade Negotiating

  • Allow the public and stakeholders (unions, civil society organizations, etc.) to comment on U.S. proposals before they are introduced
  • Publish countries’ proposals at the end of each negotiating round
  • Let Congress vote before a final pact becomes binding

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