India Signs Historic Economic Agreements at Delaware Summit

The government of India has signed the first-of-its-kind agreements on the clean economy, fair economy, and the IPEF overarching arrangement in the presence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On 21st September, 2024, at Delaware USA, India signed and exchanged the first-of-its-kind agreements focused on Clean Economy, Fair Economy, and the IPEF Overarching arrangement under Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) for prosperity.

The IPEF Clean Economy Agreement (Pillar-III) aims to promote technical cooperation, workforce development, capacity building, and research collaborations among the member countries of the IPEF with the aim of collectively accelerating the efforts of the IPEF partners towards achieving energy security and transition, climate resilience and adaptation, and GHG emissions mitigation. The agreement will facilitate investments, project financing including concessional financing, joint collaborative projects, workforce development, and Technical Assistance and Capacity Building for the industries, particularly for the MSMEs, and facilitate further integration of the Indian companies in the global value chains, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.

The IPEF Fair Economy Agreement (Pillar-IV) aims to create a more transparent and predictable trade and investment environment across the Indo-Pacific region. The agreement seeks to enhance the efforts of the IPEF partners in preventing and combating corruption, including bribery, and supporting initiatives to improve tax transparency, the exchange of information, domestic resource mobilization, and tax administration. The agreement focuses on enhancing information sharing among partners, facilitating asset recovery, and strengthening cross-border investigations and prosecutions. This will also support India's efforts in fighting corruption, money laundering, and terror financing.

The Overarching IPEF Agreement (Pillar-I) is an administrative agreement that seeks to establish a high-level political oversight framework at the Ministerial level over the various individual IPEF agreements and guide the Leaders' vision and mandate for IPEF. The agreement primarily includes administrative and institutional provisions. The aim is to provide identity to the group and longevity to the IPEF partnership, by creating a formal mechanism and establishing a forum for Ministerial discussions on emerging issues. This agreement is expected to facilitate the effective implementation of subject agreements (Pillars II-IV), that have the potential to enhance India's productive capacity, and integration into supply chains, and promote innovation, in line with the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat.