Letter to BS: Examining India's decision to pull out of the RCEP

This refers to “Leaving RCEP: A missed opportunity?” (January 17). The article rightfully emphasises the role of trade in realising the untapped potential of a country. At present India has bilateral trade agreements with Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea as well as an FTA with members of ASEAN. Thus, in ratifying the RCEP, the barriers would have been lowered with only China, Australia and New Zealand. Therefore, this dilutes the spillover effects of intensive and extensive margin arising from trade as stated in the article. Further, an examination of India’s current trade agreements doesn’t enthuse much confidence. For