A crucial meeting of trade ministers of RCEP member countries, including India and China, will take place in Singapore on November 12-13 amid pressure on New Delhi to conclude talks for the proposed mega trade deal at the earliest, sources said.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a trade pact that aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.
There is pressure on India to conclude the negotiations as early as possible despite the fact that a lot of issues are yet to be resolved, they said.
Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu will represent India at the Singapore meeting next week.
The trade ministers of the 16-member RCEP had urged participating countries to continue to exert all efforts towards meeting the targets set in the package of year-end deliverables.
The chief negotiators had concluded the 24th round of meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, last month.
Several domestic industry sectors, including steel, food processing and metals, are raising concerns over the presence of China in the group. They have stated that lowering or eliminating duties for China will flood Indian markets with Chinese goods.
India already has a free-trade agreement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), Japan, and South Korea. And it is negotiating similar pacts with Australia and New Zealand. Besides, India has a trade deficit with 10 countries in this grouping.
Trade experts, too, have expressed apprehensions that eliminating duties for Chinese goods may further impact domestic industries.
What is RCEP?
- A group of 16 countries, including India and all the major countries to its east, such as China, Japan, Australia and South Korea. Pacts still not in force
- It comprises 45% of world population, a combined GDP of $21.3 trillion and accounting for 40 per cent of world trade
