Govt girds up for next round of RCEP talks

The government is preparing for a fight at the next round of negotiations over the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.

This is after its latest move regarding a single rate of tariff reduction did not elicit a positive response from other nations, say trade experts and officials.

RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10 countries of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and six others with which this bloc has FTAs — Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. The negotiations formally began in end-2012. The Asean nations are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The government's shift in stance from three-tiered differential levels of reduction to a single one, applicable to all RCEP members, at the Laos ministerial meeting earlier this month, had been among its boldest move since the talks started. “There has been no significant improvement in negotiations with regard to merchandise trade at the latest round of negotiations,” said a commerce ministry official, on the condition of anonymity. He added that though countries seemed favourable to India’s new stance, the talks have barely progressed and India was under pressure for the next round.

Under the previous plan, the 10 Asean countries were being offered up to 80 per cent tariff liberalisation. Of this, 65 per cent elimination was to come into force immediately upon completion of the agreement. The other 15 per cent was to happen over 10 years. In the second tier, India offered 65 per cent tariff elimination to South Korea and Japan, with which it has FTAs.

While mega goods exporter China had opposed the approach, India managed to have Japan and Korea endorse its plan. The Supreme Court on Wednesday again reprimanded Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa (pictured) for using defamation cases to "throttle (choke) democracy" and asked her to face criticism as she was a public figure.

"The government cannot use state machinery to file criminal defamation cases against political opponents. It should focus more on good governance," the bench asserted.

The court's observations came on a petition filed by DMDK (Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam) chief Vijayakanth seeking quashing of defamation cases filed against him by the state government.

The court had on July 28 said defamation cases should not be used as a weapon against critics of governments and had stayed non-bailable warrants issued against actor-turnedpolitician Vijayakanth and his wife Premlata in such matters.

State government counsel had given a report which said 200 defamation cases had been filed in the past five years, of which 55 were against media and 85 involved Jayalalithaa. Over two dozen cases were filed against Vijayakanth and others for being critical of Jayalalithaa and her government. The bench also issued fresh summons against the public prosecutor and posted the matter for further hearing on September 21.

RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 countries of Asean and six others