Mrs. Pornpimol Kanchanalak, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the IPEF Ministerial Meeting in Detroit. - กระทรวงการต่างประเทศ

Mrs. Pornpimol Kanchanalak, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the IPEF Ministerial Meeting in Detroit.

Mrs. Pornpimol Kanchanalak, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, attended the IPEF Ministerial Meeting in Detroit.

วันที่นำเข้าข้อมูล 2 Jun 2023

วันที่ปรับปรุงข้อมูล 2 Jun 2023

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On 26-27 May 2023, Mrs. Pornpimol Kanchanalak, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Don Pramudwinai, attended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) Ministerial Meeting in Detroit, Michigan, which was hosted by Ambassador Katherine Tai, U.S. Trade Representative, and Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Other Ministers from IPEF Partner Countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Viet Nam, also attended the meeting.

The Detroit meeting reached another major milestone in the IPEF cooperation dialogues after the initiative was launched in 2022.

IPEF comprises four pillars of cooperation - Trade, Supply Chain, Clean Economy, and Fair Economy. Its process is fundamentally based on cooperation, consultation and coordination as it offers an opportunity to elevate the standard of trade and related mechanism.

IPEF draft agreements are structured separately to allow flexibility for Partners to join the one(s) deem best for their respective national interest.

While continued progress was made on Pillar I negotiations, there remain a number of issues to be further negotiated. However, for Pillar II, partners were able to reach a substantial conclusion of the text negotiations of the draft Supply Chain Agreement, which will be the first-of-its-kind international supply chain agreement. Progress was also made on the negotiations under Pillar III to promote green economy and Pillar IV that focuses on tax cooperation and anti-corruption issues.

The collective common goal is to create a conducive environment for free, fair, open, and inclusive trade and investment while addressing the global concerns of climate change and advancement of innovation and technology.

Pillar I (Trade)

Partners seek to craft high-standard, inclusive, free, fair, and open trade commitments that build upon the rules-based multilateral trading system. They will seek to develop new and creative approaches to trade and technology policies that advance a broad set of objectives and that fuel economic activities and generate investments; promote resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth and development; and benefit workers, consumers, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and companies, including micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). They emphasized the recognition of different levels of economic development and capacity constraints, and thus the need for flexibilities, technical assistance and capacity building.

Pillar II (Supply Chain Resilience)

The IPEF partners countries will undertake necessary steps, including further domestic consultations and a legal review, to prepare a final text of the proposed IPEF Supply Chain Agreement. Once finalized, the proposed Agreement will be subject to IPEF partners’ domestic processes for signature, followed by ratification, acceptance, or approval.

Under the proposed IPEF Supply Chain Agreement, the IPEF partners will dispense efforts in enhancing productivity, sustainability, transparency, diversification, security, fairness, and inclusivity of their supply chains. This includes engaging with businesses and utilizing technical assistance and capacity building to increase investment in critical sectors, key goods, physical and digital infrastructure, transportation, and workforce projects.

Partners also seek to provide a framework to build their collective understanding of significant supply chain risks, supported by each partner’s identification and monitoring of its own critical sectors and key goods, improve crisis coordination and response to supply chain disruptions and work together to support the timely delivery of affected goods during a crisis;

In support of these efforts, the proposed IPEF Supply Chain Agreement contemplates the establishment of three new IPEF Supply Chain bodies to facilitate cooperation among the IPEF partners on supply chain issues:

1. The IPEF Supply Chain Council: The proposed Agreement would establish a mechanism for the IPEF partners to work collaboratively to develop sector-specific action plans for critical sectors and key goods to enhance the resilience of IPEF partner’s supply chains, including diversification of sources, infrastructure and workforce development, enhanced logistics connectivity, business matching, joint research and development, and trade facilitation.

2. The IPEF Supply Chain Crisis Response Network: The proposed Agreement would establish an emergency communications channel for the IPEF partners to seek support during a supply chain disruption and to facilitate information sharing and collaboration among the IPEF partners during a crisis, enabling a faster and more effective response that minimizes negative effects on their economies.

3. The IPEF Labor Rights Advisory Board: The proposed Agreement would establish a new advisory board, consisting of government, worker, and employer representatives, as well as a subcommittee composed of government representatives, to support the IPEF partners’ promotion of labor rights and workforce development in their supply chains.

Pillar III (Clean Economy)

IPEF partners explore ways to pursue their respective climate goals. Together, they will advance cooperation on research, development, commercialization, availability, accessibility, and deployment of clean energy and climate friendly technologies, and facilitate investment towards climate-related projects in the region. IPEF partners will achieve this through connecting markets through policies and standards, ensuring that energy is sustainable, resilient, reliable, and affordable, and promoting low-and zero-emission goods and services. Thus far, IPEF partners have put forward a variety of innovative ideas and approaches to accelerate their transition to a clean economy. Recognizing the importance of delivering concrete economic outcomes, the IPEF partners are concurrently identifying and developing initiatives and proposals to advance cooperation in key areas that are critical to realizing their unique pathways towards net zero emission economies, whilst recognizing the unique national circumstances of each IPEF partner, including their development needs.

A regional hydrogen initiative was introduced to encourage widespread deployment of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen and its derivatives in the region. Possible IPEF financial support for clean economy was also discussed.

Pillar IV (Fair Economy)

Partners share the objective of effectively implementing and accelerating progress on anti-corruption measures and tax initiatives, including through enhanced cooperation on capacity building and technical assistance to boost commerce, trade, and investment among IPEF economies.

In this connection, Thailand reaffirms its intention to support the implementation of IPEF cooperation based on mutual trust and mutual respect for each partner’s domestic legal process, and stresses the importance of confidence and consensus building for mutual benefit of IPEF partners and the region.

Related Documents can be downloaded below.

Images

Images

Documents

Press_Release_on_Pillar_I_III_and_IV.pdf

Pree_Release_on_Pillar_II.pdf