India opts out of Asia’s free trade
India claims its concerns weren’t addressed
Bangkok, Nov. 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India will not join the mega Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal as negotiations failed to address New Delhi’s “outstanding issues and concerns”.
Mr Modi made the announcement during his speech at the RCEP Summit here, which was attended by several world leaders.
“The present form of the RCEP agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirit and the agreed guiding principles of the RCEP. It also does not address satisfactorily India’s outstanding issues and concerns. In such a situation, it is not possible for India to join RCEP agreement,” Mr Modi said.
The RCEP comprises 10 Asean nations and six of its FTA (free trade agreement) partners — China, India, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. However, India opted out of the RCEP.
The original RCEP was aiming to facilitate the creation of the biggest free-trade region in the world as the 16-nation
There have been fears in India that the country may be flooded with cheap industrial products from China and agricultural products from Australia and New Zealand once it signs the deal.
grouping is home to 3.6 billion people, or nearly half the world’s population.
India has been forcefully raising the issue of market access as well as protected lists of goods mainly to shield its domestic market as there have been fears that the country may be flooded with cheap Chinese agricultural and industrial products once it signs the deal. “Today, when we look around we see during seven years of RCEP negotiations, many things, including the global economic and trade scenarios have changed. We cannot overlook these changes,” he added.
“When I measure the RCEP agreement with respect to the interests of all Indians, I do not get a positive answer. Therefore, neither the Talisman of Gandhiji nor my own conscience permit me to join RCEP,” Mr Modi said.
This is not the first time that the Indian government under Mr Modi has demonstrated a strong resolve in matters of international trade and related negotiations. US President Donald Trump who is known for his negotiation skills has himself called Mr Modi a tough negotiator, sources said.
“Gone are the days when Indian negotiators cavedin to pressures from the global powers on trade issues,” sources said.
The sources said except India, all 15 RCEP member countries were on board in finalising the deal at Monday’s summit.
On Saturday, the ministers from 16 RCEP countries failed to resolve the outstanding issues identified by India, though backchannel talks continued on the sidelines of the Asean summit to resolve the sticky issues.
Thirteen Opposition parties on Monday signed a joint memorandum to be submitted to President Ram Nath Kovind on the “WhatsApp snoopgate” controversy.
Although the leaders have already sought time from the President to submit the memorandum, they are yet to get an appointment, sources told this newspaper.
The memorandum against snooping was signed at a meeting of Opposition parties held in the capital on Monday, where they also decided to jointly protest issues such as the economic slowdown, RCEP, farm distress and unemployment during the upcoming Parliament session.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said that the Opposition parties will meet again soon to discuss the issue of snooping and decide on the future course of action against the same.
Allegations of snooping started doing the rounds of political corridors after Facebook-owned WhatsApp accused the Israel-based NSO Group of using spyware called “Pegasus” to target over 1,400 WhatsApp users, a few of them based in India.
As per the instant messaging app, the spyware targeted victims by giving missed calls on their mobile phones.
The Congress revved up the debate by claiming that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s phone, too, was hacked.
Among those who attended the meeting included Azad; Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Randeep Surjewala and Rajiv Shukla; RLSP chief and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha; CPI general secretary D.Raja; CPI(M)’s T.K. Rangarajan; RJD’s Manoj Jha; Trinamul’s Nadeem ul Haque; DMK’s T.R. Baalu; and RLD’s Ajit Singh and Sharad Yadav.
Among the Opposition parties conspicuous by their absence at the meeting were the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The discussions focused on the joint Opposition’s strategy to corner the government on poor economic indicators and India’s decision.