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Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien attended IPEF Ministerial Conference

13/09/2022    53

On September 8-9, 2022, the Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien attended the Ministerial Conference under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) hosted by USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Marie Raimondo.

The Conference saw the participation of 14 countries, incl. the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Brunei, Fiji and Viet Nam.

The IPEF is an economic cooperation framework proposed by the United States with a new, open, flexible and inclusive approach, consisting of four main Pillars: Trade (Pillar I), Supply Chains (Pillar II), Clean Economy (Pillar III), and Fair Economy (Pillar IV).

Pillar I includes components relating to: (i) labor, (ii) environment, (iii) digital economy, (iv) agriculture, (v) transparency and good practice of regulations, (vi) competition policy, (vii) trade facilitation, (viii) inclusivity, and (ix) technical assistance and economic cooperation.

Pillar II includes components relating to: (i) Establishing criteria for important sectors and commodities; (ii) Increased resilience and increased investment in key sectors and commodities; (iii) Establish a mechanism for information sharing and crisis response; (iv) Strengthening supply chain logistics; (v) Enhance the role of workers and (vi) Improve transparency of the supply chain.

Pillar III focuses on five main components: (i) Energy security and transition; (ii) GHG emission reduction in priority sectors; (iii) Sustainable land, water and ocean solutions; (iv) Innovative technology for greenhouse gas removal; and (v) Incentives to enable the clean economy transition.

Pillar 4 includes four main components: (i) Anti-corruption; (ii) Tax; (iii) Capacity building and innovation; and (iv) Cooperation, inclusive collaboration and transparency.

Speaking at the Conference, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien highly appreciated the Ministerial Statement for showing respect for the diversity and development level of the participating countries. Viet Nam affirmed its policy of always supporting the process of cooperation with all countries on the basis of respect for diversity and differences, for peace, cooperation, development and mutual benefits for the participating countries. Minister Dien also confirmed that Viet Nam will coordinate with relevant domestic ministries and sectors to accelerate the internal consultation on each field of cooperation so that Viet Nam can actively participate in each pillar and its specific field in the coming time. Besides, Minister Dien suggested that countries should continue to maintain a flexible and practical approach as in the past time; clarify the specific outcomes and benefits that countries can obtain from joining the Framework; realizing technical assistance and capacity building programs as well as clarifying flexible mechanisms for countries with different levels of development; and ensure consistency in diversity to discuss content and roadmap for consistent and effective implementation.

On the sidelines of the Conference, the Vietnamese Delegation had activities to coordinate views in ASEAN and met with partners including the United States, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei to discuss multilateral, regional and bilateral cooperation issues.

At the end of the Conference, the Ministers adopted 4 Ministerial Statements on the Pillars, serving as a basis for countries to discuss and formulate more specific contents at later stages.

The full text of the IPEF's Ministerial Statements of the four Pillars (original in English) can be found here.

Source: Ministry of Industry and Trade

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