U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has chosen the top staff negotiators to help lead talks on a long-awaited economic initiative for Asia that it plans to inaugurate during his trip to the region that begins Friday, according to people familiar with the plans.
Sharon Yuan, a veteran of the Treasury Department who worked on the abandoned Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been hired to oversee staff work on the main points of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the arrangements.
The Commerce Department, which will play a key role in negotiations on the framework, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.