IPEF and the Reconfiguration of the East Asian Economic Order

A successful launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) negotiations has posed new opportunities as well as challenges to all the actors in the East Asian region. The United States—the designer and initiator of the ambitious scheme—has displayed its intention to counter China’s expanding influence using this institutional initiative. This article examines the distinctive features of the IPEF and discusses its strategic implications as the economic instrument of the United States’ Indo-Pacific Strategy. It also explores the impact of the IPEF on the institutional reconfiguration in the region, which is swiftly underway amid the intensifying US–China confrontation.