Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a mega regional free trade deal backed by China is unlikely to be signed this year as India raises new demands during negotiations at a meeting in Bangkok.
The 16-country Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – known as the RCEP – would be the world’s largest trading bloc when operational, spanning India to New Zealand, including 30 per cent of global GDP and half of the world’s people.
According to reports, except India, all the 15 RCEP member countries are on board in finalising the deal.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday voiced disappointment that the ministerial negotiations held at the 35th ASEAN Summit here had failed to materialise on the long-awaited deal on the world’s largest trade pact.
A Thai spokeswoman said the deal is unlikely to be signed until February 2020 at the earliest.
“We don’t have a conclusion yet. Commerce ministers are still discussing outstanding issues. The signing is expected around February next year,” Thai government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat told reporters.
Earlier, leaders of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations and six other nations, including India, had planned to announce a preliminary deal on Monday. The China-led deal is slated to cover one-third of the global economy.
The Philippines’ Trade Secretary, Ramon Lopez, told reporters that the deal would not be completed until February because one major country isn’t ready.
He said the country “which he didn’t identify” wanted to “have confirmation before they can totally agree”. While Lopez didn’t identify the country, reports said that India had made last-minute demands after having earlier agreed to terms of a deal.
Lopez said that members would meet in February to sort out “pending issues on market access”.
“We want them (India) to be in. We want to have them. They are a big economy,” Lopez told reporters.
It is believed that the 16 countries are still unable to agree on the 25-chapter text’s four outstanding chapters — e-investment, e-commerce, rules of origin, and trade remedies.
The RCEP includes the 10 ASEAN countries along with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Negotiations began in 2012 and were to have been concluded by the end of 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview with the Bangkok Post, said his country wanted to see a more ambitious approach to trade on services from the RCEP negotiations.
“We have put forward reasonable proposals in a clear manner and are engaged in negotiations with sincerity,” he said.
Modi said India wants to see greater ambition on services even as it remains “committed to a comprehensive and balanced outcome” from the RCEP negotiations.
India has long pushed for other countries to allow greater movement of labour and services in return for opening its market of more than one billion people to certain goods.
China is backing the RCEP as a way to assert its trade dominance in its Asian backyard after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017.
India has put out new demands after opposition from industry and farmers.
As he left for his visit to Bangkok, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday that India will consider whether its concerns and interests in trade in goods, services, and investments are being fully accommodated when he attends the meeting of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP in Thailand.