India Agrees to 3 "Trade Pillars" at Indo-Pacific Meet 2022.

Upgrade your UPSC CSE preparation and knowledge base with our daily dose of Current Affairs wherein we discuss topics that are making news both at national and international level. In today's edition, we will talk about the 3 Trade Pillars that India has agreed to at Indo-Pacific Meet 2022 and its relevance to the UPSC CSE syllabus.

For Prelims: Indo-pacific Economic Framework and its member, Trade agreements,

For Mains: Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Emerging plurilateral arrangement, Trade relation

Probable Question

Discuss various challenges and opportunities for India by being a member of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework agreement.

Context

India had agreed to three out of four pillars relating to supply chain, tax and anti-corruption, and clean energy, in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) Ministerial meeting.

Background of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF)

•  IPEF is considered to be the US’ response to the other trade pacts in the Indo-Pacific region such as China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) among east Asian countries, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), etc.
• Its members include Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
• Its four pillars are:, Trade, Supply chain, Clean economy, and Fair economy.
• The 14 IPEF partners represent 40 per cent of global GDP and 28 percent of global goods and services trade.

India’s Position on the IPEF

• India has not yet agreed to the commitments of the trade pillar, but have agreed to other pillars i.e., Supply chain, Clean economy, and Fair economy.
• On one pillar i.e., Trade, the contours of the framework  are still emerging.
• The Trade pillar deals particularly with: environment, labour, digital trade and public procurement.
• India didn't agree on free agriculture trade, but may do if high standards of export are involved.
• The Indian side demands data localisation or the storage and processing of Indian users’ data in servers located in India and not the US.
• India was in the process of firming up its own digital framework and laws.
• India expressed confidence that together this group will define the rules of trade among countries which believe in fair play, transparency and rules-based trading in the future.

News source - Indian Express

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