US and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework partners agree on clean energy, anti-corruption pillars
- Ministers from the 14 IPEF countries also formally signed the previously agreed on text of a third pillar, covering supply chain resiliency
- However, the framework’s fourth pillar – on trade – remains in limbo, after negotiations over the past week failed to produce a deal
Countries in the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) on Thursday announced agreement on two more “pillars” of the initiative, covering cooperation on clean energy and anti-corruption measures, even as IPEF trade talks languish.
Ministers from the 14 IPEF countries also formally signed the previously agreed on text of a third pillar, covering supply chain resiliency, at a meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit in San Francisco.
The agreements on three of the four IPEF pillars leave the initiative’s trade pillar in limbo, after negotiations over the past week failed to produce a deal.
The lack of an IPEF trade agreement is a setback for the Biden administration. It had aimed to showcase the initiative during the Apec summit as a symbol of its economic re-engagement in Asia, providing countries a counterweight to China’s growing trade and economic clout in the region.
But US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said progress on supply chains, clean energy and anti-corruption had generated “tonnes of enthusiasm” from IPEF partners.
IPEF “is solving problems in supply chains, in infrastructure, in climate that are highly relevant to our partners”, Raimondo told reporters.
