TJN’s Submission to Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP) Consultation
The Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP, aka. the Americas Partnership) is a proposed regional economic cooperation framework between 12 countries in North, Central, and South America.
APEP was first announced in June 2022 by US President Biden, and its broad objectives were agreed to in January 2023 in the Joint Declaration on APEP. This meeting also agreed on APEP’s four main “pillars”:
- regional competitiveness,
- resilient supply chains,
- shared prosperity, and
- sustainable investment.
Notably, APEP has no new trade liberalization (tariff reductions and market access).
This new approach comes as governments around the world are starting to recognize what activists have said for decades: the status quo in the global economy is failing. For almost 30 years, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have consistently put corporate profits before workers’ wages, have put investor rights before environmental protections, and have facilitated privatization and exploitative wage and regulatory arbitrage. The result has been obscene wealth inequality, rapid climate change, and dysfunctional democracies.