Indo-Pacific Economic Forum signs Supply Chain Resilence Agreement

The Indo-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEC) on Tuesday signed a Supply Chain Resilence Agreement that aims to make the IPEF supply chains more resilient, robust, and well-integrated. 

The agreement is expected to contribute towards economic development and progress of the region as a whole.

Union minister of commerce and industry, consumer affairs, food and public distribution and textiles, Piyush Goyal, participated in the third IPEF ministerial meeting, in Sanfrancisco in the US, on 14 November. 

Speaking at the event, Goyal emphasised the need forenhanced collaboration to realise collective aims of the IPEF, particularly on the need for mobilising affordable financing for clean economy transition and for enhancing technology cooperation. He also called for early implementation of the cooperative framework, including on bio-fuels alliance suggested by India. He also suggested enhanced collaboration among IPEF partners.

The IPEF Ministerial also held discussions on the substantial progress made by the IPEF partners on Pillar-III (Clean Economy) and Pillar-IV (Fair Economy). 

The signing of the agreement comes amidst reports that the Joe Biden administration has dropped plans to announce the completion of the IPEF trade terms because of rifts within the ruling Democratic Party.

The New York Times report citing government sources that pressure from Joe Biden's Democratic Party has forced the administration to pull off its hands at the last moment. 

Meanwhile, the administration has been briefing members of Congress and foreign trading partners in recent days on its decision.

Goyal also held bilateral meeting with US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo, Malaysia’s minister of international trade and industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz and Indonesia’s coordinating minister for economic affairs IR. Airlangga Hartarto.

Goel held discussions on bilateral collaboration on trade, commerce and investment, enhanced business engagements, WTO matters, and other issues of mutual interest. During interaction with his counterparts from ASEAN countries, the minister suggested expedited conclusion of the AITIGA review.

Goel and the US secretary of commerce co-chaired industry roundtable on US-India Entrepreneurship Partnership, which was co-hosted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and supported by National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) and Startup India, CEOs from major ICT companies, executives from venture capital firms, and founders of startups in the critical and emerging technology space.

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on “Enhancing Innovation Ecosystems through an Innovation Handshake” under the framework of India–US Commercial Dialogue.

The MoU is signed with the objective to connect the two sides’ dynamic startup ecosystems, address specific regulatory hurdles to cooperation, share information and best practices for startup fundraising and promote innovation and job growth, particularly in critical and emerging technologies (CET) as identified under India-US initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).

The MoU signals a joint commitment to strengthen the startup ecosystem in deep tech sectors and promote cooperation in Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET). The scope of cooperation would include a series of India-US Innovation Handshake events, including hackathon and “Open Innovation” programs, information sharing and other activities.