RCEP was signed during ASEAN summit

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed virtually on Sunday during the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Fourteen countries under the initiative of China have formally agreed to form the world’s largest free trade bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity. After 8 long years of negotiations the deal was finally sealed as leaders world over are anxious to nudge their pandemic hit economies back on track. This is said to the world's biggest trade agreement. 

This current push to seal the deal on the RCEP comes from China’s anxieties about the policies of US President-elect Joe Biden, who has given no indication that Trump’s China policies would be recalled. The European Union too has been opening its eyes to the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Parties in the Xinjiang region. The RCEP is a trade bloc conceptualised in 2012 that includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. India too was a part of the negotiations but withdrew last year.

Indian pharmaceutical companies were all in favour of the RCEP because they wanted to import generic drugs to China, but fears that cheaper products from China would “flood” the market, and a $50 billion trade deficit with China kept the Indian government from joining.Textile, agriculture, and dairy were three industries that were expected to be hit particularly hard if cheaper goods were readily available in the market. Even though doors have been kept open for India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) secretary (east) Riva Ganguly Das said at the 17th ASEAN-India virtual summit, “Our position is known. As far as India is concerned, we did not join RCEP as it does not address our outstanding issues and concerns.”