Former chief U.S. negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Barbara Weisel addressed the Massachusetts Export Center's Export Expo on the 2021 U.S.-Asia Trade Outlook. Short thread. @MAExportCenter

She expects US to seek to rebuild formal trade dialogues w Asian nations to set agendas, build trust, resolve frictions & coordinate on regl/multilat issues, incl WTO reform. "Japan will move most quickly to reestablish itself as a key partner, but so will Australia, NZ & others"

"Taiwan will try to capitalize on the steps that were made to improve relations & push to launch FTA talks, even in the face of the US saying it won't launch trade talks right now. I think the US will recognize the imp. role that ASEAN plays & try to rebuild the dialogue w/them."

"Beyond the dialogues, the question is whether there will be opportunities to negotiate other agreements, like sectoral agreements. Areas that seem most likely at this point are supply chain agreements with select countries across the region and digital trade agreements."

"There is also the poss. of discussion on subsidies among like-minded countries. Some of this began under the Trump Admin w/ the EU & Japan. It may be these parties along with other Asian countries can develop proposals to build plurilateral consensus & then take them to the WTO"

Asked how 301 China tariffs might be dismantled in the future, Weisel cd see either an expansion of exclusions, which cd be done quietly/under Admin control, or a U.S.-China agreement to reciprocally lift select tariffs, perhaps starting with lists 4A and 3 and working backwards.