Australia joins RCEP

BANGKOK, Nov 5, 2019, AFP. Australia will become part of the massive Asia-Pacific free-trade pact that covers half the world’s population. Regional leaders, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, agreed on a 15-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, News.com.au reported.

The pact includes Australia, China, Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand and 10 ASEAN countries — but not India — and is expected to be finalised by November next year.

The countries involved produce about 29 per cent of global gross domestic product and account for half the world’s population.

Nine of Australia’s top trading partners — representing 58 per cent of Australia’s trade and 66 per cent of its exports — are part of the deal.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia would continue to try to get India, which withdrew after concerns about opening its economy to China, into the pact.

“As RCEP economies develop and their middle classes grow, this deal will open up new doors for Australian businesses and investors across our region,” Mr Birmingham said in a statement.

Patricia Ranald, from the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, said the details of the deal wouldn’t be public until Australia officially signed on next year.

Dr Ranald told ABC’s Radio National a parliamentary review of the deal wouldn’t be able to change the text.

“We need both release of the text before it’s signed to see what the impacts are on industry and in other area,” Dr Ranald told ABC.

INDIA REJECTS DEAL

The trade deal has hit a hurdle, with India saying it would not join the pact.

India said on Monday it would not join a sprawling Asian trade pact, dealing a blow to the

India dug in over concerns about market access, fearing its domestic industries would be hit hard if the country was flooded by cheap made-in-China goods.

“We have conveyed to the participating countries that we will not be joining the RCEP,” Vijay Thakur Singh, a senior diplomat in charge of East Asia for India’s foreign ministry, told reporters.

“Our decision was guided by the impact this agreement will have on the ordinary human beings of India and livelihood of people, including the poorest of the poor.”

The 11th-hour pullout comes after days of late-running negotiations at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, which closed yesterday.

The meeting was dominated by trade issues — with RCEP front and centre — backlit by the crippling US-China tariff war.

India’s decision is seen as a blow to the deal.

The remaining members are aiming to sign it next year after reviewing an agreed draft text.

The news came after a full day of meetings at the summit, attended by the leaders of Japan, South Korea and India, along with China’s premier.

Some leaders pushed back against protectionism amid fears US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China could slow global growth to the lowest rate in a decade, according to an International Monetary Fund prediction.

“We need to protect the free-trade order… and bring the global economy back on track,” said South Korean leader Moon Jae-in.

The US-China spat has seen the two sides swap tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods, though they have agreed to roll back some of the measures with a “first phase” deal that could be soon signed.

‘TREATED GENEROUSLY’

Notably absent from the Bangkok talks were any top US officials — Washington sent commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and national security adviser Robert O’Brien in lieu of Mr Trump.

That decision raised diplomatic eyebrows and appeared to prompt several Southeast Asian leaders to skip a meeting with US officials on Monday.

Just three leaders from the 10-member ASEAN bloc showed up to the session, along with a host of foreign ministers.

But Mr O’Brien, Mr Trump’s special envoy to ASEAN, shrugged off the apparent snub, describing “excellent conversations” with leaders.

“I was treated generously,” he told reporters.

Mr O’Brien earlier read a letter from Mr Trump inviting “the leaders of ASEAN to join me in the United States for a special summit” in the first three months of next year.

Mr Trump attended the 2017 summit in Singapore and Vice President Mike Pence attended last year’s event in Manila.

But the Republican president could not come this year because he was busy with campaign events back home, a senior White House official said.

Mr Trump’s administration is accused of retreating from Asia after he pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — slated to be the world’s largest trade pact before the withdrawal.

The US leader has said he wants to pursue bilateral agreements over free trade accords to narrow trade gaps in the region — part of his “America First” clarion call.

OPEN DOOR

Thailand handed over the ASEAN chair to Vietnam, where the RCEP deal could finally be signed, after years of gruelling negotiations.

A senior trade diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not budge because he was under domestic pressure.

But the source held out the option that New Delhi could join at a “later date” even after it is signed — if outstanding issues are resolved.

China’s deputy foreign minister Le Yucheng echoed the view.

“Whenever India is ready, it is welcome to get on board,” he said before Delhi confirmed its pullout.

Analyst Deborah Elms said the deal showed a commitment to “stabilising trade in the region at a time of growing uncertainty”.

But “India will never get a better deal from the members than what they have already managed,” said Ms Elms, director of the Asian Trade Centre.

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