It’s Piyush Goyal vs Piyush Goyal in Modi govt’s decision to pull out of RCEP

It’s Piyush Goyal vs Piyush Goyal in Modi govt’s decision to pull out of RCEP

He wrote on Twitter: “Congratulate PM @narendramodi for his bold and courageous decision to not join RCEP, since it was against our economic interests and national priorities.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Tuesday, November 05, 2019, 12:36 PM IST
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On Monday, Union Minister Piyush Goyal appeared to be contradict himself as he congratulated PM Modi for pulling out of RCEP, going on to say ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai!’.

He wrote on Twitter: “Congratulate PM @narendramodi for his bold and courageous decision to not join RCEP, since it was against our economic interests and national priorities.

Modi hai to mumkin hai! I also thank PM Modi for his invaluable support and strong leadership. He has once again shown his concern for the farmers, dairy sector, MSMEs and domestic manufacturing.

This will boost Make in India. India has consistently stood its ground to uphold our demands particularly over controlling trade deficit, stronger protection against unfair imports and better market opportunities for Indian goods.

”This is in stark contrast to Mr Goyal’s previous stance. On October 10, he had said that staying out of RCEP would only ‘isolate India’. He had said: “If India remains out of RCEP, we will be left isolated from this large trading bloc.

The trade among RCEP countries is about $2.8 trillion. If India sits outside RCEP, whether it is in our interest or against our interest, it is also the responsibility of the government to see. You will want us to engage to find solutions which is in national interest.”

What is the RCEP?

The RCEP is a free trade agreement between 16 countries across the Asia-Pacific region that looks to drop tariffs and duties between the members so that goods and services can flow freely between them.

With GST collections falling and unemployment rising, the government and industry were wary whether India will be able to complete in the global arena with players from China and New Zealand. The cheap milk products from Australia and New Zealand and industrial goods from China were likely to flood the Indian markets, which is further likely to affect India's growth plans.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on November 4 at Bangkok that India will not join the mega Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal as negotiations failed to address New Delhi's "outstanding issues and concerns".

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a mega free-trade pact being negotiated among 16 countries. The members were 10-nation bloc ASEAN, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The presence of China in the RCEP grouping had raised concerns as the Indian industry was of the view that it would flood the domestic market with Chinese goods.

Several sectors like IT and pharma have time and again flagged issues with regard to trade barriers in entering the market of the neighbouring country.

India had pitched for auto-trigger mechanism in the RCEP agreement as a remedy against sudden and significant import surge from countries such as China to protect domestic players.

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