RCEP Leaders Summit

India will not be able to reap greater benefits from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement due to widening trade deficits with member countries and China's opaque trade practices, think tank GTRI said in its report. In 2019, India decided not to join the RCEP bloc due to concerns about trade imbalances and its impact on the domestic industries. The RCEP pact, a kind of comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA), was negotiated among the 10 ASEAN member states -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam -- and their six free trade partners -- China, India, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia). The countries account for about 30 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) and trade and nearly half of the world's population. "Any benefits from RCEP would likely be minimal and incremental, especially considering China's opaque trade practices. India cannot have a bilateral FTA wit

Piyush Goyal said India was exploring trade agreements with the United States and the European Union to allow manufacturing and services sectors to benefit from access to large developed markets

On November 4 in Bangkok, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the call for not joining the RCEP agreement as its concerns were not addressed in the pact

He also said that the deal would be bigger and better with India in it

The statement came days after PM Modi said a mutually beneficial RCEP, in which all sides gain reasonably, is in interests of India and of all the partners

The possible delay in firming up the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) during the 3-day ASEAN summit in Bangkok has been attributed to India's 'new demands'

The comments threw new doubt over the participation of India in the China-backed 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

On India-ASEAN summit, Modi said the focus will be on deepening economic partnerships

If finalised, the RCEP deal will facilitate creation of the biggest free-trade region in the world

Among other issues, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will be under pressure in Bangkok to negotiate a proposed import cap for China, which has been strongly resisted by Beijing

Technically, India will have time till the end of February 2020 to sort out bilateral market access issues

The Left parties and Janata Dal (Secular) have also announced protests against RCEP

Based on India's existing free-trade agreement (FTA) with Asean, the RCEP will include all the nations with which the 10-nation bloc has trade deals

Two-way trade was $6.1 billion in 2016-17, down two per cent, after a five per cent rise the year before