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View all search resultsCommittee wants to resolve ‘Indian issues’ in RCEP negotiations
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The negotiating committee hopes aspects India takes issue with in the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can be ironed, out so that the free-trade pact can be signed in November. (AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)
T
o:p>The negotiating committee for the establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) wants the “Indian issues” to be resolved early next year, so that the free trade agreement could be signed as scheduled in November 2020, Indonesia’s chief negotiator has said.
Iman Pambagyo, the director general of international trade negotiations at the Trade Ministry, said in Jakarta on Monday that, during the third RCEP Summit, held in Bangkok last month, the South Asian country’s position in the regional agreement was still ambivalent.
In the joint leader statement, India said it would join the RCEP once outstanding issues were resolved. However, Imam said Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated later that India wanted “out”, because he thought RCEP did not accommodate issues India deemed sensitive.
"We will try to resolve the Indian issues in the first quarter of next year, possibly by February," Iman said during a discussion on the RCEP road map.
He added that each RCEP member country would also try to resolve market access issues, especially between countries that had no prior free-trade agreement, as well as legal scrubbing until June 2020.
Iman said that, for the moment, 16 countries were still listed in the RCEP, as he hoped India would decide to join.
The RCEP was launched in November 2012 in Phnom Penh as an initiative by ASEAN to establish a common trade block comprising the 10 ASEAN nations along with Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.
