China and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries have signed the world's largest trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP. The RCEP groups China, Japan, South Korea, Australia New Zealand and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN.
India, which was one of the original negotiating participants, had withdrawn from the RCEP talks last year citing "outstanding issues". The latest pact says that India will have to "submit a request in writing of its intention" to join the organisation to restart negotiation for membership.
To discuss this further, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Amitendu Palit, Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (trade and economics) at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore and Rajiv Biswas, ED & Chief Economist - Asia Pacific, IHS Markit.
(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)
First Published: Nov 16, 2020 10:00 PM IST