Flawed strategy

Regional FTAs are out, but bilateral ones are as tough

The government’s decision to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which includes 15 other countries, including the manufacturing hubs of East Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand, is being justified as being part of a strategy of remaining open to trade while ensuring that Indian manufacturers are not exposed to unfair co-operation from China. This is, as a broad-brush strategy goes, not hard to defend. There is much that is problematic about Beijing’s approach to international trade, and if the RCEP did not build in the appropriate controls for Chinese exports, then it might well