New Delhi: India will not be able to reap greater benefits from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement due to widening trade deficits with member countries and China’s opaque trade practices, think tank GTRI said in its report.
In 2019, India decided not to join the RCEP bloc due to concerns about trade imbalances and its impact on the domestic industries.
The RCEP pact, a kind of comprehensive FTA, was negotiated among the 10 ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam — and their six free trade partners — China, India, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia).
The countries account for about 30 per cent of the global GDP and trade.
“Any benefits from RCEP would likely be minimal and incremental, especially considering China’s opaque trade practices. India cannot have a bilateral FTA with China due to its large trade deficit. However, joining RCEP would be even more problematic,” according to the report prepared by GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava and trade expert Abhijit Das.