RCEP: India is dangerously close to being an also-ran on trade and growth

For it to have any hope of employing the millions of young people graduating its schools every year, India's turn to protectionism must be reversed

India’s government will shortly find itself at a fork in the road. Will it choose globalisation and export-oriented growth? Or will the isolationists in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party win, and keep India out of a giant Indo-Pacific trading bloc?

This weekend, New Delhi hosted negotiators for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – from the 10 members of ASEAN as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China – in the hope that it could swing last-minute safeguards for some of its producers. Indian officials have stalled RCEP’s progress as much as they could, and the others are