Negotiations for the mega-trade deal RCEP will continue in 2019 as more rounds of talks are required to sort out issues pertaining to goods and services, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said Tuesday.
Trade ministers of 16 members of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) met last week in Singapore to review the progress of negotiations.
The mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.
Prabhu said that India in the Singapore meeting emphasised on three important issues, including establishing linkage of services to goods negotiations as the agreement is a comprehensive one and not focus only on goods.
The services sector is a key area for India as the segment accounts for about 55 per cent of the country's GDP.
"The RCEP negotiations will not end in 2018. It has been agreed at the level of leaders...it will go in 2019 as well and we will have opportunity to work on all the issues," the minister told reporters here.
India does not have free trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and China out of 16 countries that are participating in the RCEP talks, the minister outlined.
With the rest of the members, including Japan and ASEAN countries, India has trade agreements.
India has stated that it "cannot negotiate through RCEP route with these three countries and we have to separately negotiate with them", he said adding that "India's insistence has been accepted and now we will be negotiating with China, Australia and New Zealand separately along with RCEP negotiations".
Prabhu said that the leaders in Singapore have also accepted the demand of India for having 20 years implementation period of the agreement. But for China, India would seek a longer period for removal of duties on goods as the domestic industry is apprehensive about the presence of the neighbouring country in the grouping.
The commerce ministry will also hold discussions with stakeholders on the inclusion of products.
Member countries have agreed upon a deliverable package under which issues related to goods, services, investments, rules of origin and intellectual property rights have been included to expedite the negotiation process. Countries would work to conclude the talks on these issues by the year-end.
In goods, the 16 countries are discussing the maximum number of products that would attract zero customs duty. India wants to give zero duty access on the maximum number of goods to the countries with which it has a free trade agreement such Japan and South Korea but less of number items to non-FTA nations - Australia, New Zealand and China.
An official said that member countries agreed for a bilateral pairing process in the goods sector.
"Now significant flexibilities are there for members. Now we need to work upon them," the government official said.
In services, India has asked for maintaining quality and commercially meaningful offers across all modes including movement of professionals.
"In a significant development, all member countries agreed to establish the linkage between Mode 4 (movement of professionals) and the services text," the official added.
In investment, India does not favour the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
"At India's behest, it was agreed that ISDS will not apply to MFN (most favour nation) and PPR (Prohibition of Preference Requirement). All member countries are expected to submit their revised reservation lists without broad sectoral carve outs," the official said.
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.
The talks, which were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012, have dragged on as member countries want an agreement over the removal of customs duties on the maximum number of products traded between them. However, countries like India have certain reservations on this as the grouping includes China, with which New Delhi has a huge trade deficit.
Indian industry and exporters are apprehensive about the presence of China in the grouping. They have stated that lowering or eliminating duties for China may flood Indian markets with Chinese goods.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the ministry said that trade ministers in Singapore tasked the negotiators to go into the details of ASEAN's "non-paper on trade in goods market access negotiations".
In the meeting, the Indian commerce minister reiterated the need for providing adequate flexibilities on various elements of the Non-Paper, such as exclusion, reduction, staging and deviations.
"Accordingly, it was agreed that member countries will intensify bilateral pairing process on requests and offers ... these elements and determine the ambition level of each country to the mutual satisfaction," it said.
The ministers directed that the negotiations on all these issues will be intensified during the 24th RCEP Auckland Round from October 17-24 this year.
India is looking for a balanced trade agreement as it would cover 40 per cent of the global GDP and over 42 per cent of the world's population.
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