IPEF Pillar IV Ministerial Statement

MINISTERIAL STATEMENT FOR PILLAR IV OF THE INDO-PACIFIC ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK FOR PROSPERITY

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF)

Pillar IV - Fair Economy

We, the Ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Viet Nam, recognize that fairness, inclusiveness, transparency, the rule oflaw, and accountability are essential to improving the investment climate, ensuring shared prosperity, and promoting labor rights based on the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which the Partners have adopted. We seek to level the playing field for businesses and workers within IPEF member countries in the Indo-Pacific region by preventing and combating corruption, curbing tax evasion, and improving domestic resource mobilization. We are committed to working together in an open and inclusive manner, and we recognize the important role that local and other communities, women, and indigenous peoples play in realizing our shared goals.

We intend to effectively implement and accelerate progress on anti-corruption measures and tax initiatives within our domestic legal frameworks, consistent with international agreements and standards applicable to each IPEF member based on its respective commitments. We intend to promote progress towards these shared goals by enhancing cooperation on capacity building, technical assistance, and innovative implementation approaches, recognizing the different levels of development and capacity needs of each country, while strengthening inclusive collaboration and transparency. We intend to focus on:

• Anti-Corruption. We intend to effectively implement and accelerate progress on the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and as applicable, the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. We aim to pursue provisions and initiatives to: prevent, combat, and sanction domestic and foreign bribery and other related corruption offenses, consistent with the UNCAC; strengthen measures to identify, trace, and recover proceeds of crime; strengthen anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism frameworks and their enforcement, including enhancing transparency of real estate transactions and beneficial ownership of legal persons consistent with the FA TF standards; promote transparency and integrity in government procurement practices; encourage the private sector to implement internal controls, ethics, and anti-corruption compliance programs; establish and maintain systems for confidential and protected domestic reporting on corruption offenses; promote integrity of public officials; prevent corruption that undermines labor rights based on the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which the Partners have adopted; strengthen transparency and implementation of existing anti-corruption review mechanisms; and promote, within our domestic legal frameworks, the participation of all stakeholders, including individuals and groups outside the public sector, in the fight against corruption, consistent with the UNCAC.
• Tax. We intend to pursue provisions and initiatives to reaffirm our support for transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes between tax competent authorities pursuant to existing international agreements and standards; support global and regional efforts to improve tax administration and domestic resource mobilization through technical assistance, capacity building, and more efficient tax administrative practices; and support the ongoing work of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting's Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy, as applicable.
• Capacity Building and Innovation. We intend to pursue provisions and initiatives that support capacity building and explore innovative approaches to: technical assistance, sharing of expertise and best practices, development and application of technological innovations, and collaboration with the private sector and other stakeholders.
• Cooperation, Inclusive Collaboration, and Transparency. We intend to pursue provisions and initiatives that deepen cooperation and collaboration among our respective authorities, including by regularly sharing information among IPEF Partners on implementation progress toward our shared goals; and by engaging all relevant stakeholders, such as civil society, non-governmental organizations, enterprises, business organizations, industry associations, academia, and workers' organizations, to enhance transparency with respect to our shared goals.

We look forward to jointly working to develop these provisions and initiatives as part of our individual and collective efforts to innovate and strengthen our approaches to implementing anti-corruption and tax measures to boost flows of commerce, trade, and investments among our economies and advance a free, open, and prosperous Inda-Pacific region.