US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has emphasized that the Biden administration is prioritizing the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and away from the more traditional free trade agreements (FTAS), including the proposed Philippines-US FTA, as it put more focus on inclusive prosperity with a worker-centered bias approach. The visiting US Trade Representative made this emphasis as she assured that IPEF is going to outlast the Biden administration, which makes the initiative its centerpiece for Indo Pacific. “We have scoped this engagement, and is really meant to capture a really common sense good governance, pro recovery types of issues in trade and economic engagement,” she said adding how delighted she was that the Philippines is participating across the four pillars, including in the trade pillar where the USTR has scoped really important aspects of trade work. The principal trade advisor of the US President explained that FTA is more of an expression of the desire for more economic engagement with the United States by the Philippines, but said that the focus of the Biden administration is really the IPEF. “This is the Biden administration's most advanced trade initiative in the Indo Pacific and it represents the thinking and the most current type of engagement that we are bringing to our trading partners,” she said. With that she said, “We're not currently negotiating any such agreements (FTAs) with our trading partners. In particular because we do not see that traditional program being appropriate for the types of challenges and opportunities that we are facing right now.” The approach is to formulate trade policies with the intention at the very beginning to benefit not just its companies, not just the big companies, but also small and medium companies and in particular, to benefit workers. The US is moving away from unfettered liberalization that only gave rise to concentration in production to a few areas, resulting in supply chain disruption as shown during the pandemic. The IPEF puts workers at the center when leaders think of their economies. Oftentimes in these policy conversations, she noted, “We talk about the economy and we end up talking about a lot of numbers, such as trade volumes, trade balances GDP, sectoral growth, but in these discussions the workers are not considered. “We lose sight of the fact that the whole purpose of economic growth and development is to improve the opportunities for our people. And oftentimes, I think in our conversations, we lose sight of the fact that our people in our economy, they're not just consumers, but that every consumer is also someone who works and earns a livelihood. And we have to think about advancing a trade policy. That is going to be good for not just consumers, but workers because people have many facets to them,” said Tai, who is fluent in Mandarin. In this context, she said that in all of her meetings with her counterparts among the US trading partners, she always makes it a point to also meet with the workers and the leaders. During her visit, Tai is set to meet with Labor and Employment Secretary Benny Laguesma and labor leaders. The meeting with the labor leaders is meant to advance the IPEF pillars of connecting the trade and the labor conversations with all of its partners. “So that's also part of the reason why in the Indo Pacific economic framework you see in the trade pillar, the labor issues and the environmental issues, taking center stage, because we feel very strongly and this is President Biden's instruction to us that a path to a more inclusive economy, not just for us in the United States, but also for our partners, requires us to focus on building our economies, as he says from the bottom up and from the middle out to enable those at the bottom to give them a path to the middle and to broaden out the middle class.” Tai, who spent most of her career in public service focusing on international economic diplomacy, monitoring, and enforcement, explained that Biden sees that the strength of a democracy is a strong and growing middle class. “And we take very seriously at the office of the US Trade Representative our responsibility as a member of the economic policy team to carry forward that vision in the way that we do trade with our partners,” she said.