RCEP did not adequately address India's concerns, will review

The RCEP did not "adequately" address India's concerns over issues like non-tariff barriers to trade and opaqueness in subsidy regime in some countries, which forced it to back out from the trade deal, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Besides, the government is also going to review the free trade agreement between India and ASEAN countries by the previous governments as it has created trade imbalances, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said in a statement.

According to the minister, imports from these countries have increased much more than exports from India.

"The government's priority is also to correct the asymmetry in the existing agreements and maximise its export potential to benefit domestic industry and farmers to promote Prime Minister's vision of Make in India and doubling farmers' income," said Goyal.

The minister also said that India would continue to engage with other countries as "equal partner and on the principle of reciprocity".

"We are working with our existing FTA partners like South Korea and Japan to address our concerns," said Goyal in his statement on trade agreements with RCEP countries.

He further added: "We have also secured an agreement to to initiate a review of ASEAN-India Trade and Goods Agreement to make the AIFTA more user friendly simple and trade facilitative."