'Pillar-IV of IPEF will enhance info-sharing among its 14 members'

The fourth pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), which aims to create a fair economy, will enhance information-sharing among its 14 members to facilitate asset recovery and strengthen crossborder investigations and prosecutions, commerce minister Piyush Goyal has said.

- Rajeev Jayaswal

Goyal was in San Francisco for the third ministerial meeting of IPEF, where member nations also signed a supply chain agreement under Pillar-II, and reached at a broad consensus over the clean economy under Pillar-III, which aims to advance cooperation on research, development, commercialisation, availability, accessibility, and deployment of clean energy and climate-friendly technologies and facilitate investment towards climate-related projects in the region. IPEF nations account for 40% of global GDP and 28% of the global goods and services trade. The four pillars of the framework are-trade (Pillar I), supply chains (Pillar II), clean economy (Pillar III), and fair economy (Pillar IV).

Goyal said he was "extremely pleased" to join the US President and other leaders of IPEF as they "collectively" agreed on Pillars II, III and IV. India has joined three pillars, and has an observer status in Pillar-I.