This article examines how the United States has strategically employed digital trade agreements to extend its regulatory influence across the Asia-Pacific. Through a comparative legal analysis of the USMCA, the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement(USJDTA), and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework(IPEF), it explores how these instruments institutionalize liberal norms governing cross-border data flows, source code protection, and platform governance. Drawing on norm diffusion theory and the scholarship on legal pluralism, the study contends that the transmission of digital trade norms is not a process of passive acceptance but one of strategic adaptations shaped by domestic interests and institutional contexts.
Focusing on case studies of South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and India, the article shows that regional jurisdictions respond to U.S. digital trade norms in distinct ways―ranging from selective incorporation to pragmatic adaptation or resistance―reflecting their diverse legal traditions, political priorities, and governance capacities. It further assesses the consistency of these bilateral and plurilateral frameworks with WTO disciplines, highlighting areas of legal tension and normative divergence. The paper concludes that the Asia-Pacific is emerging as a legally pluralistic arena of digital trade governance, where hybrid regulatory models are evolving amid competing normative and geopolitical pressures.