RCEP opt-out: Modi's Trumpian trade exit may be tactical retreat for India

Modi and his ministers are now selling his refusal to join RCEP as a victory for India's poor

As Indian officials held last-minute talks on joining the world’s biggest regional trade deal at a summit in Bangkok, farmers back home were launching nationwide demonstrations -- chanting, holding up placards and burning signs in protest.

Opposition from powerful groups representing millions of farmers -- the most important electoral constituency in the world’s largest democracy -- showed why Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled India out of the 16-member trade deal known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP. Despite a landslide re-election win in May, he’s facing a prolonged economic slowdown and unemployment at its highest in four decades.

Modi nonetheless