The US-China Trade Deal is Mostly Symbolic

By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | January 18, 2020

On January 15, the US President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed a “phase one” trade agreement to de-escalate an 18-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. After months of tough negotiations and retaliatory trade actions, both countries agreed to proceed ahead with the “phase one” trade agreement. The core…

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India Exits RCEP: Analysing Trade Flows under India’s CEPAs

By Biswajit Dhar | Briefing Paper # 31 | December 23, 2019

In November 2019, the Indian government took an unprecedented decision to withdraw from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was to be the world’s largest economic integration agreement comprising 16 East Asian economies. The decision to withdraw came after almost all major domestic entities in both agriculture and manufacturing argued that the steep…

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Decoding India’s Withdrawal from the RCEP

By Biswajit Dhar | Commentary | November 8, 2019

India’s withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the 16-country mega-regional trade agreement in East Asia and also the world’s largest trading bloc, must be seen as evidence that in India, strong voices from the stakeholders can make their impact felt on the government’s decision-making. Few realised that it was the first time…

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India Exits the RCEP: What Happens Next?

By Kavaljit Singh | Briefing Paper # 30 | November 6, 2019

On November 4, India announced its decision to exit the negotiations on the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a mega-regional free trade agreement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed the decision at the third RCEP Summit that took place in Bangkok. The summit was attended by the leaders of all 16 RCEP Participating…

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India and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Key Issues and Implications

By Biswajit Dhar | Briefing Paper # 29 | October 11, 2019

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed mega-regional trade pact being negotiated between ASEAN and their six FTA partner-countries (India, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand) since 2012. It covers a wide range of issues, including trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, competition policy, dispute settlement,…

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