(LiveMint)
The steel industry has heaved a sigh of relief after Prime Minister Modi decided against joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a Chinese-backed free trade agreement (FTA) among 15 nations that would have made the largest trade bloc in the world.
The RCEP, if one were to include India, would include countries accounting for a third of global economic output and half of the world’s population. RCEP negotiating partners include 10 South-East Asian economies and six others—China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and India. The domestic steel industry, which has long opposed the one-sided nature of India’s existing free trade agreements, was opposed to the RCEP from the start.
Speaking to Mint, Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary General and Executive Head, Indian Steel Association, said: “The PM’s announcement has come as a great relief for steel industry in particular and many other industries in general. As far back as June, representatives of the steel industry met with the Ministries of Commerce and Steel and with the Indian Steel Association. These interactions between the government and industry were going on actively. We had asked the government that if signing the RCEP was inevitable, then steel items should be kept out of the agreement.”
