A day before the ministerial-level meet on RCEP in the Philippines, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today held bilateral discussions with leaders of China, New Zealand and Singapore.
The meetings were held with Trade Minister of New Zealand Todd McClay, Vice Commerce Minister of China Wang Shouwen and Trade Minister of Singapore Kim Hng Kiang.
The meetings took place on the sidelines of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting in Cebu, the Philippines, the ministry said in a series of tweets.
Faced with a huge trade deficit, India is expected to offer a different set of duty concessions for China at the meeting tomorrow.
RCEP is a mega trade agreement under negotiations among 16 entities, including India, Asean, Japan, China and Australia. The pact aims at significant liberalisation of trade in goods, services and investments.
The members will deliberate on the single-tier system of duty relaxation.
The 16-member RCEP bloc comprises 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
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