RCEP trade ministers may meet in Bangkok on Nov 2 ahead of leaders' summit

Trade ministers of 16 countries, which are negotiating a mega free trade pact RCEP, are likely to meet in Bangkok on November 2 ahead of the leaders' summit next month, an official said.

The RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) members include ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

"Ahead of the RCEP leaders' summit on November 4 in Bangkok, the trade ministers will hold discussions there on November 2. A joint statement for the summit is expected to be discussed by the ministers," the official added.

Talks at official level is going on between the member countries to iron out differences as certain issues are yet to be finalised.

The negotiations for the RCEP deal has reached at a fundamental phase as the member countries are targeting to conclude the talks by November. As per the target of the member countries, conclusion of the negotiations could be announced in the summit.

This trade agreement assumes significance as several domestic players from industries such as metals, dairy, electronics, and chemicals have raised serious concerns over this agreement due to the presence of China in the grouping, with which India has a huge trade deficit of over USD 50 billion.

As many as 28 rounds of talks have been held at chief negotiators level and no more rounds are scheduled now.

India has registered trade deficit in 2018-19 with as many as 11 RCEP member countries, including China, South Korea and Australia.

The agreement aims to cover issues related to goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.