As the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) negotiations intensify, significant challenges await
the United States (US), both in successfully concluding an agreement that achieves US objectives,
as well as ensuring successful implementation of the agreement once concluded. Complicated
negotiating dynamics will deny the US important leverage that it has used in the past to get
trade agreements over the finish line. Unique institutional features of the agreement call into
question whether some objectives can be achieved and enforced. Divergent domestic interests on
some issues will require US negotiators to walk a tightrope between energetic and diametrically
opposed domestic constituencies. The IPEF is freighted with heavy geopolitical baggage which
could complicate negotiations. The unorthodox use of Executive Orders (EOs) to effectuate the
agreement will raise several significant implementation challenges of which the IPEF partners
should take clear note. Ultimately, the most important impact of the IPEF could lie far beyond the
Indo-Pacific. The IPEF could be an important bellwether for how US-European Union (EU) trade
relations are handled in this post-Free Trade Agreements (FTA), post-World Trade Organization
(WTO) world.