Context:
Recently, India has been elected vice-chair of the supply chain council, one of the three bodies set up by the 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
More on the news
- India and 13 other Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) partners have established three supply chain bodies under the landmark Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Agreement relating to Supply Chain Resilience.
- The three supply chain bodies and their recently elected chair and Vice Chair.
- Supply Chain Council: USA (Chair) and India (Vice Chair)
- Crisis Response Network: Republic of Korea (Chair) and Japan (Vice Chair)
- Labor Rights Advisory Board: USA (Chair) and Fiji (Vice Chair)
- The council aims to pursue targeted, action-oriented work to strengthen the supply chains for the sectors and goods most critical to national security, public health, and economic well-being.
- The first-of-its-kind IPEF Supply Chain Resilience Agreement was signed by India along with the Ministers from other IPEF partner countries in November 2023 in Washington D.C.
- The Agreement was ratified in February 2024.
Objective of Supply Chain Council
- To make IPEF supply chains more resilient, robust, and well-integrated, and contribute towards economic development and progress of the Indo-Pacific region.
Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)
- It was launched on 23 May 2022 in Tokyo, Japan,
- It comprises 14 countries – Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the USA.
- The 14 IPEF partners represent 40 percent of the global GDP and 28 percent of global goods and services trade.
- The framework is structured around four pillars
- Trade (Pillar I)
- Supply Chain Resilience (Pillar II)
- Clean Economy (Pillar III)
- Fair Economy (Pillar IV)
- India had joined Pillars II to IV of IPEF while it has maintained an observer status in Pillar I.
- Through this initiative, the IPEF partners aim to contribute to cooperation, stability, prosperity, development, and peace within the Indo-Pacific region.