EXPLAINER: What's in Biden's proposed new Asia trade pact?

TOKYO (AP) — President Joe Biden faced a dilemma on trade in Asia: He couldn't just rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership that his predecessor had pulled the U.S. out of in 2017. Many related trade deals, regardless of their content, had become politically toxic for U.S. voters, who associated them with job losses.

So Biden came up with a replacement. During Biden's visit to Tokyo, the U.S. on Monday planned to announce the countries that are joining the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. In the tradition of trade deals, it's best known by its initials: IPEF. (Pronounced EYE-pef.)

WHAT WOULD IPEF DO?

That's still to be figured out. Monday's announcement signals the start of talks among participating countries to decide what will ultimately be in the framework, so the descriptions for now are largely aspirational. In a broad sense, it's a way for the U.S. to lay down a marker signaling its commitment to remain a leading force in Asia.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said IPEF is “focused around the further integration of Indo-Pacific economies, setting of standards and rules, particularly in new areas like the digital economy, and also trying to ensure that there are secure and resilient supply chains.”

The idea that new standards for world trade are needed isn't just about discontent among U.S. voters. It's a recognition of how the pandemic disrupted the entire scope of supply chains, shuttering factories, delaying cargo ships, clogging ports and causing higher inflation globally. Those vulnerabilities became even clearer in late February after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, causing dangerously high jumps in food and energy costs in parts of the world.

WHO'S GOING TO FIRM UP THE DETAILS?

The negotiations with...