Canada to join US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, vows to play ‘bigger role’ in region

Seeking way forward from fraught relations with Beijing, Ottawa joins 13-nation alliance viewed as centrepiece of American strategy
Top American envoy praises announcement, saying US will ‘closely consult’ IPEF nations on process for considering new members

US-China relations

Khushboo Razdanin New York

Published: 6:20am, 28 Oct 2022

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Nearly five months after US President Joe Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Canada on Thursday announced it would join the 13-nation alliance seen as the centrepiece of an American strategy to counter China’s economic clout in the region.

Speaking in Ottawa at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly vowed that Canada would play a “bigger role” and “deepen engagement with the US” in the Indo-Pacific region.

“I’m pleased to announce that Canada will seek membership to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which is commonly known as IPEF,” Joly said, adding that the two countries on Thursday “also agreed to hold the first Canada-US strategic dialogue on the Indo-Pacific to further align our approaches”.

Blinken praised Canada’s announcement. He said in the coming months the US would “closely consult with other members on the development of a process for considering new members”.

Currently the IPEF counts among its members Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

IPEF was formally introduced by Biden in May, five years after the US under his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement signed by 12 countries in Asia-Pacific, North America and South America.

After the US exit, the remaining countries formed the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade deal. Canada is a member of TPP, and China has asked to join the group.

Intended to restore American “economic leadership” in the region, the IPEF focuses on four areas: trade, supply-chain resiliency, clean energy and a “fair economy”. However, it is not a free-trade alliance.

Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, welcomed Ottawa’s announcement, saying that “joining IPEF will enhance Canada’s credibility in the region and strengthen our economic ties with the US”.

US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework touts ‘success’, but few details given

Despite being a major US ally and a Pacific power itself, Canada had been notably absent in recent years from Washington’s strategic moves in the region, like the resurgent Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and the trilateral Aukus alliance.

A US-Canada conversation about the Indo-Pacific was “clearly overdue”, according to Christopher Sand, director of the Canada Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars.

“The United States should appreciate that its aspirations for economic relations in the Indo-Pacific will benefit when the leading US trading partner, Canada, has taken its place at the Indo-Pacific table”, Sand said.

Canada was expected to come up with a new Indo-Pacific policy by the end of 2020. While the long-promised framework never materialised, Ottawa in June formed an Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee to frame Canada’s Indo-Pacific policy and address Canada’s relations with China.

For years the bilateral relationship has been marked by high tensions. In 2018, Beijing detained and later jailed two Canadians soon after Ottawa arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co, following a US extradition request.

Despite resolution of Meng, ‘two Michaels’ crises, Canada-China chill lingers

Ottawa “is collectively scratching its head, trying to figure out what would be a reasonable way forward”, said former Canadian ambassador Randolph Mank in July. He believed the government had been in policy paralysis over China and the Indo-Pacific for “several years”.

Mank described the development on Thursday as “a positive step that should boost the credibility of our long-awaited Indo-Pacific Strategy, expected next month”.

“There is much more we can do to expand commercial ties with Asia, but we have to get our own house in order, too, if we are to take advantage of trade agreements,” he said.

Amid the continuing US push for its allies to exclude China from critical supply chains, Blinken will visit a lithium-recycling facility in Montreal on Friday.

“From critical minerals to microchips, we need to be able to source and to make essential products closer to home,” said Blinken. “That will only make us more reliable and delivering for our people, but also more competitive in the 21st-century economy.”