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Is It Finally Time for India's Free Trade Agreements? The ASEAN “Present” and the RCEP “Future”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

Debashis CHAKRABORTY ,
Julien CHAISSE Open the ORCID record for Julien CHAISSE [Opens in a new window]  and
Xu QIAN
Debashis CHAKRABORTY
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, [email protected]
Julien CHAISSE
Affiliation:
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong [email protected]
Xu QIAN
Affiliation:
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the inception of the WTO in 1995, India enthusiastically explored export-promotion strategies through multilateral trade reforms. However, the country has moved towards the regional trade route since 2004, primarily owing to the slow progress of the Doha Round negotiations. As a result, the whole architecture of international trade law and governance is being redesigned in the Asia Pacific region. This paper focuses on the pivotal role played by India in this rebalancing. Given the stress on services exports and investment requirements, India focused on entering into comprehensive agreements encompassing merchandise and services trade as well as investment provisions. Presently, India is involved in the ongoing Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] negotiations, where ASEAN remains at the core. The current analysis evaluates the Indo-ASEAN trade patterns and evolving dynamics over the last decade through select trade indices, and comments on the future of the RCEP.

Type
Articles
Information
Asian Journal of International Law , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 2019 , pp. 359 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Asian Journal of International Law, 2019 

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Footnotes

*

Professor of International Economics, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

**

Professor of International Law, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

***

Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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125 Vikas DHOOT, “MPs Fret over Trade Deficit with ASEAN” The Hindu (26 August 2017).

126 Fan HE and Panpan YANG, “China's Role in Asia's Free Trade Agreements” (2015) 2 Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies 416.

127 V.S. SESHADRI, “Emerging Dynamics on RCEP”, Research and Information System for Developing Countries, RIS Policy Brief No. 85, October 2018.

128 Transnational Institute, “RCEP: A Secret Deal” (July 2018), online: TNI <https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/foe-rcep-secret-deal-2-web.pdf>.

129 “RCEP Talks to Go Beyond 2018, India Claims Big Gains” The Economic Times (5 September 2018).