No Region Left Behind: USTR expands its unambitious trade agenda to the western hemisphere

In June 2022, President Biden announced the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) with eleven other countries in the Western Hemisphere. The White House declared APEP a "historic new agreement to drive our hemisphere's economy recovery and growth," including through strengthening supply chains, incentivizing private-sector investment and addressing regulatory issues to make regional trade more resilient.

More than two years later, on June 20, 2024, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) finally requested input from the U.S. business community and other public stakeholders concerning U.S. interests and priorities regarding APEP.

As PhRMA notes in its recent comment letter, USTR's intentionally unambitious and vague APEP strategy has failed to deliver meaningful results for American workers and businesses. USTR's list of priorities for APEP indefensibly excludes longstanding and bipartisan U.S. trade objectives - such as protecting intellectual property and actively dismantling foreign trade barriers - that protect American workers from unfair competition abroad.

As PhRMA's comments explain, these and other trade objectives, such as eliminating regulatory barriers that impede U.S. biopharmaceutical exports, are essential to:

• Expand export and economic opportunities for American workers and companies
• Incentivize the invention and production of lifesaving medicines, and
• Reinforce the resilience of U.S. biopharmaceutical supply chains in the Western Hemisphere.

Unfortunately, USTR's lack of serious purpose concerning APEP is merely the latest example of the Administration's misguided and often harmful approach to trade policy, which holds negative consequences for American workers and U.S. businesses facing stiff global competition.