India pulls out of trade talks with US led Indo-Pacific group

USA's attempt to kick start the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) may have been dealt an early blow as India walked out of the trade talks. Reportedly, in a statement released after two days of negotiations in Los Angeles, the US side released a statement explaining India's position.

“India is not now in the ‘trade pillar’. However, minister (Piyush) Goyal and I have been talking and we have our bilateral and trade policy forum. I should be meeting him by the end of this year. We would cover the same issues in that bilateral channel,” said US trade representative Katherine Tai.

Stating that doors remained open for New Delhi to join the economic side of the platform, Tai further added, “That question you should pose to minister Goyal. I wouldn’t characterise it as opting out, India is not in the trade pillar right now.”

It is pertinent to note that Joe Biden launched the IPEF initiative in May earlier this year. IPEF is an attempt by Washington to bring together Asian countries to counter China's influence in the region.

India, Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the US are the 14 members of the grouping.

IPEF features four main focus areasviz. supply chain resiliency, connected economy, clean energy transformation (clean energy, decarbonisation, and infrastructure), and fair economy (anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and tax).

While India will be part of three out of the four pillars i.e supply chain, clean economy, and fair economy, it has refrained from joining the connected economy.

And this is not the first time that New Delhi has opted out of joining an economic arrangement in a new grouping, In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government took the rather bold approach of not joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

(With inputs from agencies)

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