Rejecting RCEP making it tough for India to raise exports: Experts

In 2019, these 15 RCEP countries' combined imports goods were worth $4.96 trillion

India’s refusal to join the Regional Com­p­rehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — the free trade bloc of 15 Asia-Pacific countries — will keep the count­ry’s exporters out of the world’s biggest and fastest growing trade and economic bloc.

In the last 10 years, the combined imports by RCEP member countries have grown at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9 per cent against 4.3 per cent in total world imports during the period. In comparison, goods import by North American countries such as United States, Canada and Mexico grew at a CAGR of 4.6 per cent in the last 10 years while