A DEMOCRATIC TRADE PARTNERSHIP: ALLY SHORING TO COUNTER COERCION AND SECURE SUPPLY CHAINS
G7 leaders discuss common challenges in Schloss Elmau, Germany, June 2022.
(via Council of EU)
III. D-TEP: STRATEGIC VISION AND GOALS
G
iven the significant vulnerabilities they face, the United States and its democratic allies must adopt a fundamentally new approach to deal with the growing economic challenges to the rules-based order. The United States and leading democracies in Europe, North America, and the Indo-Pacific should lead the establishment of a new strategic trade and economic framework for the twenty-first century: a Democratic Trade and Economic Partnership (D-TEP) that would bring together willing democracies, and potentially other partners that meet certain criteria, to act together under a common economic umbrella. D-TEP would provide a holistic and systematic framework for the United States and its allies and partners to coordinate on economic challenges posed by revisionist autocracies and help position the free world to succeed in an era of strategic competition. D-TEP would be focused primarily on achieving the following goals.
1 Reducing strategic dependence on China and
Russia. First, D-TEP would aim to reduce democracies’ vulnerability to coercion, blackmail, or potential supply chain disruptions from China and Russia. The goal is not to cut off all trade and investment, particularly with regard to China. Rather, it is to identify critical economic sectors
ATLANTIC COUNCIL
in which the United States and its allies cannot afford to continue allowing unfettered trade and investment flows, and to take impactful steps to reduce strategic dependence in these sectors. D-TEP would also seek to ensure that China and Russia are not able to gain access to military and other national security-related products, services, and technologies.
2 Expanding free, fair, and secure trade among democ-
racies. Second, D-TEP would be aimed at fostering free, fair, and secure trade within the democratic world, by bringing down trade and investment barriers in the industry sectors around which supply chains would be reorchestrated under this framework. The goal is
D-TEP would provide a holistic and systematic framework for the United States and its allies and partners to coordinate on economic challenges posed by revisionist autocracies and help position the free world to succeed in an era of strategic competition. 15
