Trade ministers of 16-member RCEP bloc, including India and China, will deliberate upon issues hindering the negotiations of the proposed mega trade deal in Singapore on August 30-31, an official said.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights.
The meeting is important as the 16-member bloc now needs specific political guidance to move the negotiations further.
"Officials held discussions today on the pact and the ministers would meet tomorrow and day after," the official added.
The bloc comprises 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners - India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
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The meeting also assumes significance as the negotiations are not moving at a fast pace even as the talks for the deal started in November 2012.
The 23rd round of the negotiation was recently concluded without much progress in Bangkok.
Sectors including textiles, steel and food processing have raised serious objections over removal or significant reduction of customs duties on these items under the pact. They want these segments to be out of the purview of RCEP.
They have apprehensions that removal of duties would lead to flooding of Chinese goods in the Indian market. But without any free trade agreement, India has a trade deficit of USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 with China as compared to USD 51.11 billion in the previous year.
Pressure is mounting on India for early conclusion of the negotiation despite the fact that no member is showing flexibility in its stand.
RCEP members want India to eliminate or significantly reduce customs duties on the maximum number of goods it traded globally. India's huge domestic market provides an immense opportunity of exports for RCEP countries.
But the lower level of ambitions in services and investments, a key area of interest for India, does not augur well for the agreement that seeks to be comprehensive in nature.
Of the RCEP nations, India has a trade deficit with as many as 10 countries, including China, South Korea and Australia, among others.
India wants to have a balanced RECP trade agreement as it would cover 40 per cent of the global GDP and over 42 per cent of the world's population. India already has a free trade pact with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan and South Korea. It is also negotiating a similar agreement with Australia and New Zealand but has no such plans for China.
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