Cold Chain Included in Critical Sectors under the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement

On August 23^rd, the United States announced its list of critical sectors and key goods for potential cooperation under the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement to strengthen supply chain resiliency across the Indo-Pacific Region. This is a key milestone in implementing the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement to establish a framework for deeper collaboration to prevent, mitigate, and prepare for supply chain disruptions.

The IPEF Supply Chain Council lays the foundation for collaboration on supply chain opportunities and challenges across the Indo-Pacific. Through the work of the Council, Parties may collaborate to enhance the resilience, sustainability, and diversification of IPEF supply chains and explore opportunities to identify best practices and advance policies, measures, or actions positively impacting trade among the Parties in critical sectors or key goods.

Under the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement, each Party committed to developing a list of “critical sectors” and “key goods” for cooperation under the Agreement. Below is the US list of sectors, which includes specific mention of the cold chain:

U.S. List of Critical Sectors and Key Goods for Potential Cooperation under the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement:

• Agriculture
• Chemicals
• Consumer Goods
• Critical Minerals and Mining
• Energy/Environmental Industries
• Health Industries
• Information and Communication Technology Products
• Transportation and Logistics, which includes specific mention of:

Transportation, logistics, and distribution services (particularly cold chain services and IT interoperability standards)