January 23, 2020: In November 2019 15 governments announced they had concluded the talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), but India withdrew from the negotiations. The target date for signing has now been postponed to November 2020, as other governments ask India to negotiate to re-join.
December 9, 2019: 94 community organisations from Asia Pacific countries demand details of giant RCEP trade deal before signing
December 3, 2019: Japan’s Deputy Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, Hideki Makihara, has stated that Japan is "not thinking at all" about a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal without India, calling into question the future of the deal.
November 20, 2019: Kate Lappin, Asia Pacific Regional Secretary of Public Services International, and Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia, have warned of the danger that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RECP) poses to the 1.1 billion women living in RCEP member countries, arguing that “a gender equitable trade policy is possible. But it would look nothing like the RCEP.”
November 19, 2019: Kanksshi Agarwal, a policy and political researcher based in Delhi, has analysed the role that e-commerce provisions in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have played in India’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.
November 11, 2019: Professor Biswajit Dhar from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi has analysed the Indian government’s decision to withdraw from the RCEP. Highlighting the ongoing disagreement between India and other RCEP countries on market access provisions, the protection and promotion of foreign investment and e-commerce provisions as central to India’s decision to withdraw from the negotiations.
November 7, 2019: Business economist Ian Verrender has criticised the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as another example of overlapping bilateral and regional trade agreements with complex rules that will not deliver claimed economic benefits but could do harm.
November 5, 2019: Read AFTINET Convener Pat Ranald's article in The Conversation about the government's decision to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).
November 5, 2019: Listen to AFTINET Convener Pat Ranald's interview with Radio National Breakfast about the government's decision to join the RCEP, the impact of India's withdrawal from the deal, corporate influence on its content and why the text of the agreement should be released and evaluated before signing.
November 5, 2019: “India’s departure from the 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) announced yesterday in Bangkok is not only caused by India’s resistance to lower tariffs. There is a hidden agenda of non-tariff issues that could restrict future government regulation by giving more rights to global corporations, “AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.