Global Economics Monthly: Economics and the Rebalance

Volume II | Issue 12 | December 2013

Economics is at the heart of U.S. involvement in the Asia Pacific. This statement is as true today as it was in 1784, when the first U.S. merchant ship bound for Canton set sail from New York. Trade,
investment, and other economic ties across the Pacific today are measured in the trillions of dollars, support millions of American jobs, and underpin our national security.

Like administrations before it, the Obama administration has put economics at the center of its Asia-Pacific strategy. But it has arguably raised the stakes by making the overall success of its
policy of “rebalancing” to Asia contingent on a successful economic strategy, in particular completion of a high-standard Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

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Matthew P. Goodman

Matthew P. Goodman

Former Senior Vice President for Economics