Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday held a meeting with Union Ministers including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to discuss the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed free trade agreement involving 16 countries.
Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also attended the meeting today.
The RCEP is an economic cooperation agreement that is being negotiated by 16 countries including the ten countries of ASEAN. India has some issues of interest both in trade in goods and trade in services.
Earlier in September, Goyal had asserted that India will protect its national interest while signing RCEP.
"Not every industrial sector is opposed to RCEP Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Pharmaceutical and textiles sector has supported RCEP FTA. We will take care of concerns of certain sectors related to China in RCEP FTA," he had said.