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A ‘New’ Recipe for Trade
With other mega regional trade agreements like the Trans–Pacific Partnership in uncertainty, trade treaties like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will acquire greater significance beyond their original ASEAN-centred grouping. The RCEP needs to be tracked for its implications for both the global trading system and the livelihoods of people.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated by 16 countries in the Asia– Pacific region. These include the 10 economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—Brunei, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Additionally, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, all FTA partners of the ASEAN, are members of the RCEP.
India established an independent diplomatic mission in ASEAN in January 2015, which began functioning in Jakarta, Indonesia in April 2015. ASEAN is at the core of India’s Act East Policy. The ASEAN–India Investment and Services Agreement also came into force in July 2015. India already has an ongoing FTA with ASEAN, which was signed in 2009 and came into force in January 2010. So, outside the World Trade Organization (WTO), India is already in ambitious market access–oriented trade arrangements in the region.
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