India presses for greater market access in services at RCEP

India is pressing for greater market access in the services sector, particularly easy movement of professionals, in the ongoing negotiations for a mega trade deal at RCEP - a group of 16 nations.
Liberalisation of the services sector was the main issue of discussion in the recently concluded 11th round of talks in Brunei. The 12th round of negotiations is scheduled at Perth in Australia from April 22.
"India wants greater relaxation in visa regime in RCEP countries. During the last round of talks, the 10-nation bloc Asean has raised issues with the offer of India in the services sector. However, Australia has supported our offer," an official said.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a mega trade deal which aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.
Besides, senior officials from 16 Asian countries, including India and China, held wide ranging deliberations on duty cuts in goods.
"In the goods sector, India has asked the members to fulfill their commitments as their current offers are not up to

the level they have committed," the official added.
As part of its goods proposal, India has not offered any duty cut on steel to China, Australia and New Zealand in the proposed free trade agreement among the 16 Asian members.

The RCEP talks started in Phnom Penh in November 2012.
The 16 countries account for over a quarter of the world's economy, estimated to be more than USD 75 trillion.
The RCEP deal is also important amidst the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement led by the US. Indian industry is apprehensive that TPP would impact Indian exports.
India already has free trade agreements (FTAs) with the Asean grouping, Japan and South Korea.
India has offered to open its market the most for Asean countries -- with which it has an FTA in place -- and has proposed to eliminate duties or tariffs on 80 per cent of items for the 10-nation bloc.

Similarly, for Japan and South Korea, it has offered to open up 65 per cent of its product space.
For Australia, New Zealand and China, New Delhi has proposed to eliminate duties on only 42.5 per cent of products. As India does not have any kind of FTA with these three countries, its offer is less.
The 16-member bloc RCEP comprises 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six free trade agreement partners -- India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.