RCEP Deal: 15 countries including China signed a major agreement, India remained out

15 countries coming to the Asia-Pacific region have signed an RCEP deal with China on Sunday. India is not included in the RCEP, which is considered to be the world’s largest free trade agreement, while in the last eight years India was involved in every agreement related to it. Last year itself, the Indian leadership
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RCEP Deal: 15 countries including China signed a major agreement, India remained out

15 countries coming to the Asia-Pacific region have signed an RCEP deal with China on Sunday. India is not included in the RCEP, which is considered to be the world’s largest free trade agreement, while in the last eight years India was involved in every agreement related to it. Last year itself, the Indian leadership called the deal a tilt towards China. India then decided to pull out of the deal.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal covers about one-third of the world’s economy. The countries involved in this deal will reduce import-export duties to give each other’s products a place in their markets in the coming years. That is, 15 countries involved in the deal will be able to easily deliver their products to other countries at cheaper prices. According to reports, after the signing of the deal, all countries will have to ratify it within two years before it can take effect.

What was India’s concern: India raised questions on the issue of additional benefits to China during the discussion on RCEP last year. India said that this deal will easily open the doors of China to other countries. Because of this, there will be a glut of Chinese products in the markets. That is, China will benefit from the removal of import duties in this agreement because its production power is more than all the countries involved in this agreement. Due to this, local producers in all countries may suffer heavy losses.

After India’s decision to stay out of this agreement, all countries had said that India can join this agreement whenever it wishes. However, India says that free trade cannot be promoted without a change in the structure of the deal.

Early for RCEP due to coronavirus: Economies have been devastated by the worldwide coronavirus havoc. It has a bad impact on Asia. As such, countries in the greater Asia-Pacific region have shown a rush to join the RCEP. The countries that signed the deal include ASEAN’s 10 countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Apart from this, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia are also part of this deal.