| Summary/Abstract |
After more than 12 rounds of negotiations, at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the third Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit held jointly in Bangkok, Thailand on 4 November 2019, India declared that it had decided to exit the RCEP. The RCEP is a proposed trade agreement between ASEAN and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The five countries have a free trade agreement (FTA) with ASEAN. The RCEP intends to increase trade and commerce by providing greater market access for countries that do not have FTAs with the bloc countries, providing investment opportunities for the bloc countries, reducing tariffs and other barriers and standardising customs rules and procedures. It will also help in setting up supply chains in the RCEP countries to export goods outside the bloc which will further enhance economic growth. The RCEP is the largest trading bloc in the world, larger than the European Union (EU) and the region covered by the US–Mexico–Canada trade agreement. It accounts for approximately one-third of the world’s population and one-third of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
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