On Tuesday, the trade ministers of India, Japan, and Australia formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) in a virtual trilateral ministerial meeting. The initiative will focus on the knowledge sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience and holding investment promotion events. It will also include buyer-seller matching events so that stakeholders can utilise government support for trade and investment diversification.
The video conference was attended by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism, and Investment Dan Tehan, and Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry Kajiyama Hiroshi. Speaking of the SCRI in a joint statement, the three ministers said that the SCRI “aims to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region. The ministers consented that expansion of the SCRI may be considered based on consensus, if needed, in due course.” In addition, the release also mentions that all three countries have “instructed their officials to implement the following as initial projects of SCRI and further develop the Initiative: (i) sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience; and (ii) holding investment promotion events and buyer-seller matching events to provide opportunities for stakeholders to explore the possibility of diversification of their supply chains.”
Moreover, the leaders also acknowledged that “some supply chains have been left vulnerable due to a range of factors,” mostly due to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. They concluded the meeting by deciding to meet at least once a year to provide guidance to the implementation of the SCRI as well as to consult on how to develop the initiative.
It is being speculated that the move, which has been in talks since last September, aims to counter Chinese supply chain dominance in the Indo-Pacific and reduce the trio’s dependence on Beijing by developing robust supply chains in the region. Recently, Japan has significantly bolstered its policy of diversifying its supply chain, and the Southeast Asian region has featured prominently as part of that drive.
In the pursuit of doing so, the Japanese government decided to offer subsidies to 87 companies last August to move production to Southeast Asia and expand operations within Japan. The grants totalled $653 million, indicating the first step towards decoupling from the Chinese economy. Around the same time, Japan also announced that it would roll out a high-tech system that would “comprehensively manage trade transaction information with members of the ASEAN bloc.”
India Launches Supply Chain Initiative with Australia & Japan to Address Reliance on China
On Tuesday, the trade ministers of Japan, India, and Australia agreed to work toward achieving supply chain resilience in the Indo-Pacific region to reduce their reliance on China.
April 28, 2021
SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES