Get RCEP done soon

Swift conclusion of trade negotiations in India's interest

The  Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was supposed to be concluded by the end of the current calendar year. But the commerce ministers of the 16 countries involved, meeting in Singapore, have agreed on a joint statement that pushes agreement on the deal back to 2019. There are still major gaps to be filled. The joint statement indicated that the “ministers guided the negotiators to deliberate further on e-commerce, competition and investment chapters where consensus could not be reached during this meeting”. At one level, this is excellent news for India. It was India’s negotiators who were being seen