ISDS Case Map
RCEP
If indeed the RCEP is an ASEAN-led initiative, it fell short of supporting the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. The RCEP offers little in terms of shedding ASEAN’s elitist image and committing to the development of a highly inclusive, people-oriented and people-centred community.
India's focus has shifted to the creation of a strong domestic agricultural and industrial base, and therefore, joining the RCEP no longer appears to be a priority.
“It’s not as bad as the worst agreements out there” really shouldn’t be a cause for celebration.
China's renewed pursuit of a free trade agreement with South Korea and Japan appears aimed at undercutting US influence and shaping regional economic cooperation on terms favorable to it.
Australia’s recent signature of the RCEP has attracted world attention for its significance in consolidating Asia-Pacific geopolitical relations. But in celebrating this agreement, we seem to have forgotten its unfinished business regarding labour and human rights.
China will step up efforts to expand the free trade area network across the world to enlarge its “circle of friends”, according to China’s Commerce Minister Zhong Shan.
The inclination is clearly towards bilateral trade agreements, where India has more flexibility in negotiating terms that it feelss wouldn’t disadvantage domestic manufacturers.
The challenge is not that the world’s biggest trade deal is China-led or heralds a Sinocentric order – both of which are misrepresentations anyway – but that the Asia-Pacific region has shown no need of US leadership or even involvement.
India, which has not signed any trade agreement since 2012, will soon revive talks on the possible free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union and the US.
India’s decision to stay out of the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, Asia’s mega free-trade agreement (FTA), has been met both with a sense of approval and disappointment and divided economists on the issue.
