 "Illustration: Ajay Mohanty")
Fifteen economies in the Asia-Pacific signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on Sunday.
India pulled out of negotiations last year. In this context, our lead here editorial notes that as Asia-Pacific and Africa join in their great internal free-trade blocs, India will stand isolated and continue to underperform in terms of exports and growth. This is a great act of economic self-harm, and shows how insecure the Indian government is about domestic competitiveness as a manufacturing economy, or even in parts of the agricultural sector. Self-reliance is not a superior alternative to open trade and
