Hyderabad: Bureaucrats from India and stakeholder countries continue to burn the midnight oil in last-ditch efforts to conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) even as PM Modi is holding bilateral meetings with top leaders in Bangkok along sidelines of the ASEAN summit.
According to a report in the South China Morning Post following fresh demands by India, 'officials are working behind the scenes to try to salvage progress’.
RCEP the proposed FTA (Free Trade Agreement) between the ten members of ASEAN and six FTA partners including India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand promises to be the biggest regional trading bloc once it takes shape and could prove to be an economic game-changer.
The 16 countries in RCEP combined would account for a third of global gross domestic product and comprise of nearly half the world's population and trillions of dollars of trade. In his opening remarks at a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders PM Modi without referring to RCEP underlined the need to review the existing Trade agreement between India and ASEAN.
"This will help not only further strengthen our economic relations, but our trade will also be more balanced," Modi said.
ASEAN and India have a combined market of almost 2 billion people and a GDP of more than US$5.5 trillion. Southeast Asian countries are keen to see some provisional agreement to be at least announced on Monday with India on board.
Meanwhile addressing a formal opening ceremony of the ASEAN summit on Sunday Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ochoa stresses on the need to conclude the trade deal. "We should continue to work to conclude negotiations on the RCEP within this year to stimulate economic growth, as well as trade and investment," said the Thai PM.
According to reports in Japanese, Chinese and Thai media with India as the last hold out citing its domestic concerns and agriculture industry agitations especially over fears of Chinese products flooding markets, a joint statement is likely to be released on Monday at the Leaders’ Summit without a likely conclusion of the deal.
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