Kurt Tong is managing partner at strategic advisory firm The Asia Group in Washington and a member of the advisory board of the American Association of the Indo-Pacific. He was previously a senior U.S. diplomat handling Indo-Pacific economic affairs.
Economic policy commentators across the Indo-Pacific region have expressed concern that the U.S. has taken a step back from traditional market-opening initiatives, which emphasize tariff reduction and the elimination of at-the-border barriers to international trade and investment.