• 9964432222
  • Mail Us
  • Appointment
  • Locate Us
  • Chat Now
  • Courses
  • Login
  • Register
Manifest IAS
JournalsOfIndia
Advertisement
  • Home
  • SNIPPETSfor Prelims
  • ARTICLESfor Mains
  • BROWSEBY SOURCE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • SNIPPETSfor Prelims
  • ARTICLESfor Mains
  • BROWSEBY SOURCE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result
JournalsOfIndia
No Result
View All Result
Home Economy

RCEP Negotiations and India

November 23, 2018
in Economy
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
225
VIEWS
Share on WhatsAppShare on TelegramShare on Facebook
image_pdfMake PDF

Manifest Pedagogy

Economic groupings and India’s place amongst global economic powers has been an area which is a focal point in both Mains and Prelims. UPSC focuses not only on the member states, it also pivots to the idea of cross comparisons such as India-RCEP and relations with Japan, effect of RCEP on India’s engagement with other powers such as USA etc.

In News

RCEP Meeting in Singapore for early year end deliverables of trade negotiations

Placing it in syllabus

Paper 2: International Relations

Paper 3: Trade policy as part of LPG Reforms

Static Dimensions

  1. What is RCEP?
  2. Concept of G2 – USA and China
  3. Free Trade Agreements
  4. ASEAN, ASEAN+3, ASEAN+6
  5. Relevance of WTO
  6. TFA (Trade Facilitation Agreement), GATS, GATT,TRIMS,TRIPS and AoA (Agreement on Agriculture)

Current Dimensions

  1. Advantages and Disadvantages for India
  2. India’s Economic Vision
  3. Neo-Protectionism
  4. Indian Diaspora
  5. Naval supremacy and higher participation in global institutions like UN

Content

RCEP – Regional comprehensive Economic Partnership

RCEP is an ASEAN-centred proposal for a regional free trade area, which would initially include the ten ASEAN member states and those countries which have existing FTAs with ASEAN – Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand.

The 16 RCEP participating countries account for almost half of the world’s population, over 30 per cent of global GDP and over a quarter of world exports.

The objective of launching RCEP negotiations is to achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement that will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, electronic commerce, dispute settlement and other issues.

New Trends

What should India be doing?

An agenda of what will hold India in good stead for the next quarter century, regardless of how the world shapes up.

Reforms for India’s engagement with the world at large 

  1. Champion the cause of globalization as movement of labour, goods, and services is critical for India’s growth.
  2. Retain flexibility in terms of alignment: be open to larger partnerships and global projects, as well as unilateral action.
  3. Partner with other middle powers, especially those concerned by G2 dominance.

How will this affect India?

With an economic boom behind it, the middle class is large, aspirational, and assertive. Concerns about inequality and India’s position on the global stage are present, especially due to the side-lining of the G20. Since both the US and China want access to India and other developing markets, there is an opportunity for India to lead a market-sharing bloc of non-G2 States. Export-driven growth becomes a strong possibility. The US is unlikely to develop a closer strategic partnership with India, and China continues its strategy of containment. This means that India must aggressively advance its interests or risk being side-lined.

India should align politically with the US, and economically with China. G2 guarantees should be used to secure peace and trade in the neighbourhood. India should strategically liberalize some sectors of the economy, and be receptive to trade and FDI, using its market power to get the best possible deals. Strong macroeconomic fundamentals are a must. There should also be a push for domestic consumption and import substitution. India can also focus on building charter cities and creating SEZs to create employment.

Advantages for India

  1. The strategy is also aligned to India’s Act East Policy which builds on the Look East Policy for closer partnership with the Asian region.
  2. Changing geopolitics and growing focus on the Asia-Pacific region influenced India’s decision to join RCEP.
  3. Standardization of product lines at par with developing countries without tight scrutiny of western regulations
  4. Cultural synthesis of products such as market for handicrafts, Agricultural products etc.

Disadvantages

However, the biggest challenge India is facing in RCEP arises from its trade deficit with ten of the RCEP countries, particularly with China with whom India has a huge trade imbalance.

  1. Tariff levels- It was to be expected that given the tariff levels in the important RCEP markets are already low, the negotiated tariff reductions from the Indian side will be relatively greater.
  2. Agricultural products- The huge concessions being sought by Australia in agricultural products can be an extremely sensitive issue for India’s farmers. Indian farmers need support from the government in view of their low productivity and low income levels.
  3. Services– the discussions have not gained much traction and India seems to be not getting any meaningful market access.
  4. Investment- application of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)

Recent developments (changes made for India)

India has a whopping $104 billion trade deficit with the 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) grouping, which is 64% of India’s total trade deficit of 2017-18.

Negotiations have dragged on for almost five years, primarily because of India’s reluctance to significantly open up its market, given the sensitivities around agriculture- and labour-intensive domestic industries.

India claimed “big success” as members conceded to its demand to liberalize their services market and allow movement of skilled professionals (Mode 4).

24th RCEP Auckland Round from 17-24th October 2018 

The Ministers acknowledged the good progress made in the negotiations so far with successful conclusion of 4 chapters, namely

  1. Economic and Technical Cooperation
  2. Small and Medium Enterprises
  3. Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation
  4. Government Procurement

However, in the recent Singapore meet countries dragged their feet on reaching important milestones for the success of the agreement.

Test Yourself: Mould your thoughts

India has to be selective in opening its markets in age of new protectionism. In light of this statement analyse the impact of RCEP on India’s economy? Do you think it is misguided given the large trade deficits India faces with participating members?

image_pdfMake PDF
Tags: GS-3Mains

Related Posts

National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC)

National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC)

May 20, 2022
State of Inequality in India Report

State of Inequality in India Report

May 19, 2022
Gold hallmarking

Gold hallmarking

May 4, 2022
MSME Sustainable (ZED) Certification Scheme

MSME Sustainable (ZED) Certification Scheme

May 3, 2022
India Semiconductor Mission

India Semiconductor Mission

May 3, 2022
Atal New India Challenge 2.0 (ANIC 2.0)

Atal New India Challenge 2.0 (ANIC 2.0)

April 30, 2022
Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)

Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)

April 29, 2022
All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey

All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey

April 26, 2022
Fincluvation

Fincluvation

April 23, 2022
Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit 2022

Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit 2022

April 22, 2022
Please login to join discussion

Our Offline Classroom Student

PRELIMS 2021 POLITY QUESTIONS ANALYSED

https://youtu.be/5q8hBcRGhAs

PRELIMS 2021 HISTORY QUESTIONS ANALYSED

https://youtu.be/v0SIZ7SUybg

CONGRATULATIONS TO 2020 TOPPERS !!!

Rank 25 Vaibhav Rawat 

Rank 218 Kankanala Rahul Reddy
Rank 385 Sagar A Wadi
Rank 504 Malashree MV
Rank 573 Shridevi B V
Rank 707 Mamatha G

COURSES OFFERED

PRELIMS SURESHOTS

May 2022
MTWTFSS
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031 
« Apr    

Browse by Category

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster Management
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Geography
  • Governance
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Opinion
  • People in News
  • Places in News
  • Science & Tech
  • Security
  • Society
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Browse by Tags

AIR BBC Business Standard CNN Deccan Herald DownToEarth Down to Earth DTE Economic Times ET GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 Hindustan Times IE India & the world Indian express India today Indiatoday Kurukshetra LiveMint Mains News News Paper Newspaper PIB PIB & The Hindu pre Prelims PRS India RSTV Science Reporter Survey The Hindu The Hindustan Times The India Express The Indian Express The New Indian Express Times of India TOI TOPPERS UNDP website Wikipedia Yojana
JournalsOfIndia

Our vision is to orient the readers to grasp the facts objectively and analyse critically. In the rush of reaching first to the readers, the websites miss the balanced opinion, which is the need of the hour. We aim to reach the readers with more crispness, preciseness and relevance. We bring the articles in UPSC way for the civil services aspirants and the Wisest Way for general readers.

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster Management
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Geography
  • Governance
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Opinion
  • People in News
  • Places in News
  • Science & Tech
  • Security
  • Society
  • Sports
  • Uncategorized

Browse by Tag

AIR BBC Business Standard CNN Deccan Herald DownToEarth Down to Earth DTE Economic Times ET GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 Hindustan Times IE India & the world Indian express India today Indiatoday Kurukshetra LiveMint Mains News News Paper Newspaper PIB PIB & The Hindu pre Prelims PRS India RSTV Science Reporter Survey The Hindu The Hindustan Times The India Express The Indian Express The New Indian Express Times of India TOI TOPPERS UNDP website Wikipedia Yojana

Newsletter

The most important UPSC news and events of the day.

Get Journals daily newsletter on your inbox.

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Home
  • SNIPPETS
  • ARTICLES
  • BROWSE
  • DOWNLOADS
No Result
View All Result

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In