Bangkok: Asian leaders plan to sign the world’s largest regional trade deal next year without India if it’s not ready to join, a Chinese foreign ministry official said on Monday.
Fifteen nations have completed negotiations and India is the last holdout, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told reporters in Bangkok, adding that India is welcome to join whenever it’s ready. Asian leaders had hoped to announce a breakthrough on the trade pact this week.
“It’s the 15 nations that have decided to move forward first,” Le said, adding that a few issues won’t be completed before the end of the year.
“There won’t be any problem for the 15 nations to sign RCEP next year,” he added. “We are taking an open attitude — whenever India is ready, it’s welcome to get onboard.”
China has sought to accelerate the pact covering a third of the global economy as it faces slowing growth from a trade war with the U.S., which withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Donald Trump took office in 2017. A deal would further integrate Asia’s economies with China just as the Trump administration urges Asian nations to shun Chinese infrastructure loans and 5G technology.
India has long been the main holdout on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, due to domestic opposition over worries it would be flooded by cheap goods from China. It made last-minute demands in the run-up to the Bangkok meetings that ended up derailing the talks. The Philippines said Saturday that negotiations wouldn’t be completed until February.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is leading a downgraded U.S. delegation to Asean, downplayed the significance of RCEP in an interview yesterday. Most Southeast Asian leaders skipped a summit on Monday with U.S. representatives after Trump decided to avoid the annual meetings for a second straight year.
“RCEP is not much of an agreement,” Ross told Bloomberg. “It’s not a free trade agreement, it’s not anything remotely like TPP, nor anything remotely like our separate arrangements with Japan and with South Korea. So I don’t think you want to blow that out of proportion. It’s a very low-grade treaty.” -Bloomberg
Also read: India should join RCEP because it needs more trade, not less