RCEP negotiations may miss December deadline

August 24, 2016 10:53 pm | Updated 10:53 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

The negotiations for the proposed mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 16 Asia Pacific nations including India and China are likely to miss the December 2016 deadline for their conclusion, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

The talks for inking the pact, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), might “move into 2017,” Ms. Sitharaman told reporters, adding that the next meeting to review progress is slated for November this year.

The trade ministers of the RCEP members, including from the 10-member ASEAN bloc, had met earlier this month in Laos to resolve outstanding issues — including those related to liberalisation of trade in services and goods. Sources said the RCEP member nations are now considering a single-tier system of tariff relaxation from the earlier three-tier system. It is learnt that India, however, will agree to this single-tier system only if it results in flexibility for it to bring down or eliminate tariffs in some select items over a very long period of time so that such a move does not hurt India Inc.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.