US Commerce Minister Gina Raimondo on Thursday expressed hope that economically the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) would prove to be more effective than the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India.
The IPEF was jointly released by the US and other partner countries in the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 in Tokyo. IPEF’s 14 partner countries represent 40 percent of global GDP and 28 percent of global goods and services trade. The framework is based on four pillars related to trade, supply chain, clean economy and fair economy (tax and corruption related issues).
India has opted out of the trade pillar and decided to join the remaining three pillars related to supply chain, clean economy and fair economy.
Raimondo said no trade deal with India is currently being discussed and the US Congress has said it is in no hurry for an FTA. “I hope that the IPEF… I firmly believe that it will prove to be economically more effective in many ways than the FTA,” he said.
He said that this framework would be similar to a modern trade agreement. He said that IPEF would help more in job creation than traditional FTA between the two countries.
Asked about cooperation in the semiconductor sector, the US Commerce Secretary said that India and the US would have formal discussions on this sector. He said, “I am working on this with my counterpart (Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal). Tomorrow there are official meetings of the CEO Forum and commercial dialogue and we will be talking very important about semiconductors. We will have a formal discussion between the US government and the Indian government.”
He said that there is synergy between India and the US on semiconductor design and technology. Raimondo said the US and the world depend heavily on Taiwan for semiconductors and that “we look forward to working closely with our partners, including India” in this area. He also said that there are huge opportunities in both the countries to increase trade and investment.
