India has decided to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) due to a number of reasons which include the concerns of farmers, dairy sector and the micro, small and medium enterprises. The design of the RCEP is such that it would reduce import tariffs to a great extent and thus a huge surge of imports to India would have impacted several domestic industries. Substantial trade deficit with China and localisation of data were other significant issues that derailed the negotiations.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their five FTA partners.

Initially, the RCEP was described as “a proposed free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their six FTA partners” India, ASEAN’s sixth FTA partner, opted out of the agreement in late 2019.