Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal, participated in the G7 Trade Ministers Meeting in Osaka, Japan today. Shri Goyal made an important intervention on the topic of Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience and gave several suggestions on the issue. He mentioned that the Covid 19 pandemic and the geo-political events highlighted the vulnerabilities of the existing supply chains leading to increase in commodity prices and global inflation. 

The Minister encouraged Public-Private partnership, investment in critical infrastructure and the need for innovation and digitalistion of the supply chains. Shri Goyal highlighted the need for supply chain diversification and skilling and re-skilling of the personnel. He urged the governments to collaborate on a regulatory framework to ease the movement of supply chains and facilitate cross border trade. He also recalled the Generic Framework for Mapping of GVCs mentioned in the New Delhi Declaration of the G20.

During the Session representatives from the governments, private sector and the international organisations like OECD, WTO, etc. also participated. Most of the private sectors shared their positive experiences in developing resilient supply chains. Suzuki made a presentation on their experience in India. Suzuki mentioned how they developed a reliable and trusted vendor base in India and achieved over 95% indigenisation in their supply chains in India. ERIA also mentioned a study conducted by them that showed the growing share of India in the global value chains.

Ministers from Australia, Chile, Indonesia and Kenya also made their interventions and shared suggestions on this topic.

Shri Goyal had bilateral engagements with several Ministers. Shri Goyal met Mr. Nishimura Yasutoshi, Minister of Economy, Trade & Industry, Japan, Ms. Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business & Trade, UK, Mr. Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism, Australia, Ms. Katherine Tai, Ambassador, United States Trade Representative, Mr. Udo Phillip, Secretary of State, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs & Climate Action, Germany. Important issues like enhancing bilateral trade, removal of non-tariff barriers, update on the status of the ongoing FTA negotiations and the upcoming ministerial conference on WTO were discussed during the interactions. Shri Goyal also met Ms. Ngozi, Director General of WTO and Mr. Tatsuo Yasunagawa, Chairman, Mitsui, Japan and Japan-India Business Cooperation Committee (JIBCC).

G7 is an intergovernmental forum comprising seven important countries of the world. G7 accounts for over half of global network wealth, 30-43% of global GDP and 10% of world’s population. India is amongst the select countries that have been invited by G7 in this meeting of trade ministers in Osaka.

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AD/VN