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US President’s aggressive trade strategy diminishes relevance of IPEF: GTRI
May-05-2026

The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has said that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), a 14-member grouping including India, the US and Australia, is becoming less significant due to US President Donald Trump's aggressive trade strategy. The IPEF was unveiled on May 23, 2023 in Tokyo, by the US and other Indo-Pacific partner countries. The 14 partners represent 40 per cent of global GDP and 28 per cent of global goods and services trade.

IPEF is designed as a plurilateral cooperation framework built around four pillars -- Trade (Pillar-I), which seeks to develop rules on digital trade, labour, environment, and regulatory practices; and Supply Chains (Pillar-II), which focuses on resilience, diversification, and crisis response. Clean Economy (Pillar-III), which promotes cooperation on clean energy, climate technologies, and sustainable infrastructure; and Fair Economy (Pillar-IV), which addresses anti-corruption, tax transparency, and governance.

India has opted into three of the four IPEF pillars -- supply chains, clean economy, and fair economy -- while staying out of the trade pillar on account of concerns over commitments in areas like digital trade and regulations. Besides, GTRI said in a US trade environment under Donald Trump, the IPEF has little practical role in the near term. It noted that Trump’s strategy -- focused on high tariffs, aggressive use of Section 301 investigations, and rapid bilateral agreements -- stands in sharp contrast to IPEF's cooperative, non-binding structure.


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