This week, President Biden welcomed government and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific to San Francisco, California, for APEC Economic Leaders’ Week. President Biden highlighted how his efforts to grow the U.S. economy from the bottom up and the middle out have made the United States the preeminent driver of inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific and are delivering results for American workers and families. Across the events of the week, President Biden took steps to deepen U.S. economic ties with key regional partners, support workers’ rights around the world, and advance his agenda for a more innovative, interconnected, and inclusive Asia-Pacific region.

Driving Regional Growth and Dynamism

The United States is the world’s leading global economy and an engine of growth and dynamism across the Asia-Pacific region. Since the President took office, we’ve created 14 million jobs here at home—and more jobs in the first two years than any President in a four-year term. The United States has had 21 straight months of unemployment under 4 percent, for the first time in over half a century, and the economy grew by 4.9 percent in the third quarter of this year. Our strong economy is driving inclusive and sustainable growth across the Asia-Pacific and catalyzing historic investment from the Asia-Pacific to support growth here at home.

APEC Economies are Investing in America. President Biden’s economic policies, combined with deep economic ties with Asia-Pacific countries, are driving historic investments into the United States across key sectors. Companies based in the Asia-Pacific have announced almost $200 billion of investments into the United States since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, supporting tens of thousands of good new jobs for American workers. Asia-Pacific companies have also contributed to one third of all major clean energy and semiconductors investments in the U.S. since the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act. This week, companies in APEC economies announced new investments into the U.S., such as a new facility in Michigan to produce batteries for electric transport and electrolysers to make green hydrogen, and highlighted recent major announcements, including multibillion-dollar semiconductor investments to improve U.S. economic resiliency and create thousands of jobs.
U.S. Companies are Fueling Dynamism & Inclusive Economic Growth Across APEC. Over the course of the U.S. APEC host year, U.S.-based companies represented at the APEC Summit announced over $50 billion in new investments into the Asia-Pacific, including nearly $25 billion to increase digital connectivity; new subsea cables that will result in more than $1 trillion in GDP; 50+ new direct flights per week from the United States to APEC economies; significant investments in a wide range of sustainability and clean energy technologies; new training and opportunities for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, underrepresented groups, and small businesses; and more than two dozen partnerships between U.S. companies and APEC-based universities on cutting edge technology.

Charting the Next Chapter of Inclusive Regional Growth

On top of these strong two-way investment flows, President Biden has pursued a forward-looking economic agenda that strengthens our ties with partners and supports American workers. Today our partners recognize that our collective success hinges on building secure supply chains, harnessing the clean energy and digital transformations, and driving broadly shared growth. By putting these issues at the top of our agenda, President Biden has been able to forge new regional partnerships and deepen bilateral ones.

Securing Key Outcomes Across the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. A year and a half ago, President Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity to work with diverse regional partners to advance workers’ rights, facilitate high-standard trade and investment, and tackle pressing issues facing our countries, including vulnerable supply chains, clean energy transitions, and corruption. This week, the President announced that the United States and our IPEF partners have negotiated first-of-their-kind agreements to achieve these goals, including a Supply Chain Agreement that will help partners promote diversification and resiliency in their supply chains, a Clean Economy Agreement to accelerate IPEF partners’ transitions to cleaner economies, and a Fair Economy Agreement that will enhance IPEF partners’ efforts to combat corruption and improve tax transparency.
Launching Indo-Pacific Specific Initiatives Through the U.S. Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). To scale high-standard investments and create a more resilient economy in the United States and in the Indo-Pacific, the United States hosted a regional PGI Investor Forum with IPEF governments and the U.S. private sector. At the Investor Forum, the United States announced new transformative investments from the U.S. Government and U.S. private sector and launched the PGI IPEF Investment Accelerator to scale high-standard project financing to drive sustainable economic growth in IPEF countries. Through the Accelerator, the United States and IPEF partners will develop a country-tailored investment approach targeting key sectors identified by IPEF beneficiaries. The Accelerator will focus on high-standard outcomes, including strong worker and environmental protections.
Launching the United States’ First Global Labor Strategy. President Biden has also been clear that growth must support workers—both in the United States and around the world. This week, President Biden signed the first-ever Presidential Memorandum outlining the Administration’s commitment to workers’ rights globally. In doing so, President Biden is directing Federal departments and agencies to advance labor rights and worker empowerment in their work abroad, including enhancing labor diplomacy and labor engagements through our Embassies; aligning our efforts in multilateral forums to pursue high labor standards and enhance worker protections and workers’ right to organize; and ensuring consistent consultation with and participation of labor stakeholders in policy development and economic engagement.
Launching the Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) Initiative. This week at APEC, the Vice President launched the Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) Initiative, with more than $900 million in commitments—including over $163 million in U.S. government commitments — by governments, private sector companies, foundations, and civil society to bolster women’s economic participation in green and blue sectors, including clean energy, fisheries, recycling, forest management, and environmental conservation.

Investing in APEC as an Institution

While APEC has always focused on economic growth, throughout the United States host year, we have focused on how we grow. Guided by the theme, “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” the U.S. APEC Host Year focused on key priorities for future regional growth.

Elevating Inclusivity, Sustainability, Connectivity, and Resiliency. Under the U.S. Host Year, APEC launched the Manoa Agenda for Sustainable and Inclusive Economies focuses on efforts to promote green growth and APEC’s work on sustainable economic growth; the Digital Pacific Agenda to support the responsible design, development, and deployment of emerging digital technologies aimed to secure digital access for consumers and businesses; and the Bay Area Agenda on Resilient and Inclusive Growth to increase supply chain resilience while continuing to integrate the cross-cutting concept of inclusion.
Reaching Consensus on the Golden Gate Declaration. APEC Leaders formally adopted this year’s Leaders’ Declaration, “The Golden Gate Declaration.” This Declaration reflects consensus from APEC leaders and a commitment to work together to keep our markets open, to address supply chain disruptions, and to ensure our trade and investment benefits all of our people and economies. It reflects a commitment to accelerate our efforts toward a clean and just energy transition—including tripling renewable energy capacity globally—and to cut in half the digital gender divide by 2030. The Declaration was issued alongside a companion Chair’s Statement which reflects the Leaders’ discussion on Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and other geopolitical issues. Read the Golden Gate Declaration here, and read the Chair’s Statement of the APEC Leader’s Summit here.

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