Thailand will host the fifth round of negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in September. The IPEF aims to enhance economic engagement among partner nations and promote growth in the region.
The meeting in Bangkok will focus on trade, supply chains, a clean economy, and a fair economy. Thailand will highlight the importance of cooperation in capacity building and technical cooperation, particularly in clean energy.
The country is committed to adhering to international standards on anti-corruption and taxation. The negotiations will play a crucial role in furthering economic collaboration in the Indo-Pacific.
On May 23, 2022, India, along with 12 other countries, joined the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which seeks an open, inclusive, interconnected, and secure Indo-Pacific for sustainable growth of the region. India sees this framework as crucial for continued growth, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and intends to deepen economic engagement among partners in a free, open, and inclusive manner.
The new framework, which is perceived as an economic correlative of the US Indo-Pacific strategy, is not a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), as clarified by the US.
Instead, it’s a loose framework that brings together 13 countries to shape rules on key focus areas like the digital economy, trusted supply chains, clean economic growth, corporate accountability, and anti-corruption.
The IPEF’s framework can therefore be objectively seen as a move by the US to strengthen its foothold in the region and to check China’s vast influence. The lack of details, however, has given cause to much speculation about the IPEF being merely geopolitical theatre.
Most countries in the IPEF are members of the Asia-Pacific trade treaty – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – through which they are set to become even more economically integrated with China. They are also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which seeks to make trade facilitative infrastructure and regional connectivity investments.
Source : Thailand Business News
August 18, 2023
