On RCEP, India has enough bargaining chips, not so helpless: Jairam Ramesh

If agreeing to RCEP means crossing those lines, I think we should wait, we should rush into an agreement that is going to have such deleterious effects on an industry, which is already crippled

Former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh tells Archis Mohan that India is not helpless and should not rush into an agreement that is going to have deleterious effects on the industry. He says India needs to step back a little and see the gains and pains in their totality and put in place the systems to deal with the pains before joining in. Edited excerpts:  

Can India afford to be isolationist in an era of international economic integration and walk out of the RCEP? 

We are not walking out. You walk out of something once you