Indo-Pacific ministers gather for U.S.-led economic initiative

The United States on Monday began hosting a ministerial meeting with 13 other Indo-Pacific countries that have been seeking to jointly promote trade ties and a rules-based economic order in a region where China is growing in influence.

The meeting on the U.S.-led initiative, formally called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, will run through Tuesday, while the trade ministers of the 14 countries, which include Australia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, are in San Francisco for a larger multilateral conference.

Since the initiative, known as the IPEF, was launched by U.S. Presiden...