Singapore Envoy Says Indo-Pacific Disappointed by US Trade Plans

Singapore’s top diplomat in the US criticized the Biden administration’s trade agenda, saying countries in the Indo-Pacific region are disappointed with the lack of focus on increasing their access to the American market in the White House’s economic framework proposed for the region.

“When you don’t have market access, there’s no real trade policy,” Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Singapore’s ambassador to the US, said on Tuesday at a conference of the Washington International Trade Association. “The countries of the region are somewhat disappointed that we’re not getting the kind of trade agenda that we would have liked from the US.” ...