On Monday, Thailand said that Asian countries had held conclusive talks which could be the world's biggest trade pact.
According to Reuters, Thailand also said that there would be an announcement of success at a summit in Bangkok despite doubts raised by India. Spurred in part by the US-China trade war, Southeast Asian countries hoped to announce at least provisional agreement on the China-backed 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Monday.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told Reuters, "The negotiation last night was conclusive. There will be an announcement together on the success of the RCEP agreement by the leaders later today. India is part of this as well and will jointly make the announcement. The signing will be next year."
At a separate meeting, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said "We welcome the conclusion of the RCEP negotiation and (are) committed to sign the RCEP agreement in 2020," reported Reuters.
India has been raising the issue of market access as well as protected lists of goods mainly to shield its domestic market as there have been fears that the country may be flooded with cheap Chinese agricultural and industrial products once it signs the deal.
China and India, who fought a border war in 1962, have clashed verbally in recent days over India's decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, addressing a press conference at the end of the ASEAN summit, called for concluding the negotiations for the RCEP deal. The RCEP negotiations were launched by ASEAN leaders and the six other countries during the 21st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in November 2012. The objective of launching RCEP negotiations was to achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN member states and its FTA partners.
The proposed free-trade agreement includes 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and six of the bloc's dialogue partners -- China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. When finalised, the RCEP would become the world's largest free trade area, comprising half of the world population and will account for nearly 40 per cent of the global commerce and 35 per cent of the GDP.
“The negotiations were conclusive,” Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told reporters, adding a joint statement will be issued by the leaders at the RCEP summit later in the day. Hardball negotiations to address sticky issues went down to the wire on Sunday with India holding on to its demand for amicable resolution of market access and tariff related issues. On Saturday, the trade ministers from 16 RCEP countries failed to resolve the outstanding issues identified by India though back-channel talks continued on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit to resolve the sticky issues.
(Inputs from Agencies)
