RCEP: By opting out of it, India shows that now it fears the world

PM Modi's decision not to join RCEP is an admission that even the prospect of joining a massive regional trade agreement isn't incentive enough for New Delhi to launch deep economic reforms.

India, which has for some years now been raising walls against the rest of the world, appears to have definitively turned its back on freer trade. Fifteen of the 16 countries involved in negotiations agreed on November 4 to sign up to the giant trade agreement known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Only India, after months of uncertainty, chose to hold back for the foreseeable future.

The decision wasn’t free of acrimony. The Chinese claimed that India had raised new demands at the last minute; the Indians insisted that they were simply holding out for the same concessions