The Agreement on Clean Economy will promote technical cooperation, workforce development, capacity building and research collaborations; and collaborate to facilitate development, access and deployment of clean energy and climate-friendly technologies with the aim to collectively accelerate efforts of IPEF partners towards energy security and transition, climate resilience and adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions.
During PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the US for the Quad Summit last week, India signed and exchanged the first-of-its-kind agreements focused on clean and fair economy, and the IPEF overarching arrangement under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) for prosperity.
Other IPEF members had signed the pacts on June 6, but India did not sign then as the domestic approval process was under way.
It will facilitate investments, project financing including concessional financing, joint collaborative projects, workforce development and technical assistance and capacity building for industries, in particular for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and facilitate further integration of Indian companies into global value chains, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Agreement on Fair Economy aims at creating a more transparent and predictable trade and investment environment across the Indo-Pacific. IPEF partners will collaborate to enhance their efforts in preventing and combating corruption and supporting initiatives to improve tax transparency, the exchange of information, domestic resource mobilisation and tax administration.
It focuses on enhancing information sharing among partners, facilitating asset recovery, and strengthening cross-border investigations and prosecutions. This will also support India’s efforts in fighting corruption, money laundering and terror financing, a release from the Indian ministry of commerce and industry said.
The Overarching IPEF Agreement seeks to establish a high-level political oversight framework at the ministerial level over the various individual IPEF agreements, while setting general guidance and goals, and guiding Leaders’ vision and mandate for IPEF. It primarily includes administrative and institutional provisions.
It is expected to facilitate the effective implementation of subject agreements that have the potential to enhance India’s productive capacity, and integration into supply chains, and promote innovation.
Other IPEF members had signed the agreements on June 6 this year at the IPEF ministerial meeting in Singapore. India did not formally sign then as the domestic approval process was under way.
IPEF was launched on May 23, 2022, at Tokyo comprising 14 countries—Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.
The IPEF seeks to strengthen economic engagement and cooperation among partner countries with the goal of advancing growth, economic stability and prosperity in the region.
The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade (pillar I); supply chain resilience (pillar II); clean economy (pillar III); and fair economy (pillar IV).
India had ratified the Agreement on Supply Chain Resilience in February this year and has maintained an observer status in pillar I.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
