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The commerce ministry has said that the next meeting of the Supply Chain Council, set up under an agreement of the 14-member IPEF, will be held in December. The IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity) bloc was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23, 2022, in Tokyo. Together, they account for 40 per cent of the world's economic output and 28 per cent of trade.

The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy. India has joined all the pillars except the trade. Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam are members of the bloc. The Supply Chain Resilience Agreement came into effect on February 24. It seeks to strengthen supply chains through engagement among the partner countries. Under this agreement, three institutional bodies have been created - Supply Chain Council (SCC), Crisis Response Network (CRN) and the Labour Rights Advisory Board (LRAB) - with specific functions to achieve the objectives of the pact. 

The first meeting of the Supply Chain Council was held in Washington DC on September 12. While the US is the Chair, India is the vice Chair of the council. In the first meeting, the council established three action plan teams in three sectors - Semiconductors; Critical Minerals with a focus on batteries; and Chemicals. The ministry said that it has also been principally agreed by the partner countries to establish another action plan team related to the healthcare/pharma sector. These teams will commence work shortly to prepare its recommendations for the Council on possible collaborative and co-operative efforts among the partner countries for bringing in resilience in the supply chain pertaining to those specific critical sectors and key goods.