India to stay out of RCEP in its present form
PM Modi said the RCEP agreement does not address key issues raised by India
PM Modi said the RCEP agreement does not address key issues raised by India
PM Modi said the RCEP agreement does not address key issues raised by India
PM Modi said the RCEP agreement does not address key issues raised by India
On Monday, 15 countries concluded their negotiations over the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would become the largest free-trade area in the world if ratified.
India, however, chose to stay out of the regional grouping, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the present form of the RCEP agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit or the agreed guiding principles of the RCEP.
According to the official statement by ASEAN, India has “significant outstanding issues which remain unsolved" with India's final decision to depend on "satisfactory resolution of these issues."
The Ministry of External Affairs said that the decision was taken considering the national interest.
Speaking at the ASEAN summit in Bangkok, Modi said, “Today, when we look around we see during seven years of RCEP negotiations, many things, including the global economic and trade scenarios, have changed. We cannot overlook these changes. The present form of the RCEP Agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of RCEP. It also does not address satisfactorily India's outstanding issues and concerns. In such a situation, it is not possible for India to join the RCEP Agreement.”
According to government sources quoted by PTI, India's stand at RCEP is a strong reflection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong leadership and India's rising stature in the world. India's decision will greatly help Indian farmers, MSMEs and dairy sector, they said.
The government sources said that India's stand is a mixture of pragmatism, the urge to safeguard interests of the poor and the effort to give an advantage to India's service sector.
While not shying away from opening up to global competition across sectors, India made a strong case for an outcome which is favourable to all countries and all sectors, they said.
The RCEP comprises 10 ASEAN nations and six of its FTA (free trade agreement) partners—China, India, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. The RCEP aims to facilitate the creation of the biggest free-trade region in the world as the 16-nation grouping is home to 3.6 billion people, or nearly half the world's population.
On Saturday, the trade ministers from 16 RCEP countries failed to resolve the outstanding issues identified by India, though back-channel talks continued on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit to resolve the sticky issues.
India has been forcefully raising the issue of market access as well as protected lists of goods mainly to shield its domestic market as there have been fears that the country may be flooded with cheap Chinese agricultural and industrial products once it signs the deal.
The RCEP negotiations were launched by ASEAN leaders and six other countries during the 21st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2012. The objective of launching RCEP negotiations was to achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN member States and its FTA partners.
With inputs from PTI