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The second Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial Meeting was held in Detroit on Saturday (local time) hosted by the US. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal virtually participated in the meeting.
IPEF was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23, 2022, in Tokyo. IPEF has 14 partner countries including Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the US. It seeks to strengthen economic engagement among partner countries with the goal of advancing growth, peace and prosperity in the region. The framework is structured around four pillars relating to Trade (Pillar I); Supply Chains (Pillar II); Clean Economy (Pillar III); and Fair Economy (Pillar IV). India had joined Pillars II to IV of IPEF while it has an observer status in Pillar-I. At this ministerial Meeting, negotiations under the Supply Chains (Pillar-II) were substantially concluded; while good progress was reported under the other IPEF Pillars. Under the Supply Chains (Pillar-II), IPEF partner countries are seeking to: make supply chains more resilient, robust, and well-integrated through crisis response measures; cooperation for mitigation of disruptions to better ensure business continuity, and improve logistics and connectivity; promoting investments, particularly in critical sectors and production of key goods. During his intervention under this Pillar, Goyal commended the negotiating teams for delivering an expeditiously negotiated, and mutually beneficial agreement that could propel deeper integration of economies and supply chains within IPEF, and urged for expeditious implementation of all the action-oriented cooperative and collaborative elements identified as part of this agreement. (ANI)
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