India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal rejected the idea of joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world’s largest trade deal, maintaining that it is not in the country’s interest to be part of a free trade agreement with China.
The RCEP deal was signed in 2020 by 15 Asia-Pacific countries — which makes up out 30% of global GDP — and came into force in January 2022. The countries are the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and five of their largest trading partners, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
REASONS FOR NOT JOINING: Goyal noted that at that time, India already had a free trade agreement with ASEAN, Japan and Korea, as well as a bilateral trade with New Zealand worth $300 million.
“It was not in our farmers’ interest, RCEP did not reflect the aspirations of our small and micro medium industries and sector, and in some form, was nothing but a free trade agreement with China,” he said.
CHINA ISSUES:-
NON-TRANSPARENCY: “When you see from the lens sitting outside the country, you don’t realize how difficult it is to compete against a non-transparent economy,” the minister continued, in reference to China.
VALUES MISMATCH: “Certainly nobody back home would like to have an FTA with [a] non-transparent economy, very opaque in its economic practices, where both trading systems, political systems, the economy — the way it is managed — is completely different from what the democratic world wants.”
MISUSING WTO: Goyal also accused China of using the World Trade Organization’s policies to its advantage, flooding various economies with goods at low prices which often do not meet quality standards.
Source - CNBC
The RCEP deal was signed in 2020 by 15 Asia-Pacific countries — which makes up out 30% of global GDP — and came into force in January 2022. The countries are the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and five of their largest trading partners, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
REASONS FOR NOT JOINING: Goyal noted that at that time, India already had a free trade agreement with ASEAN, Japan and Korea, as well as a bilateral trade with New Zealand worth $300 million.
“It was not in our farmers’ interest, RCEP did not reflect the aspirations of our small and micro medium industries and sector, and in some form, was nothing but a free trade agreement with China,” he said.
CHINA ISSUES:-
NON-TRANSPARENCY: “When you see from the lens sitting outside the country, you don’t realize how difficult it is to compete against a non-transparent economy,” the minister continued, in reference to China.
VALUES MISMATCH: “Certainly nobody back home would like to have an FTA with [a] non-transparent economy, very opaque in its economic practices, where both trading systems, political systems, the economy — the way it is managed — is completely different from what the democratic world wants.”
MISUSING WTO: Goyal also accused China of using the World Trade Organization’s policies to its advantage, flooding various economies with goods at low prices which often do not meet quality standards.
Source - CNBC
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