RCEP — Committed to work with India before deal can be finalised: New Zealand

On Monday, India decided to hold off on signing the RCEP agreement until “significant outstanding issues” were resolved, even as all other 15 countries involved in the negotiations stated that they were ready to sign the mega trade deal in 2020.

The purpose of the deal is to create an integrated market spanning all 16 countries, which would mean that it would be easier for the products and services of each of these countries to be available across the entire region. Unsatisfactory negotiations pertaining to India’s trade with China — India has an over $50 billion trade deficit — is one of the major reasons for New Delhi not joining in at this stage. Also, steel and textiles sectors were demanding protection along with dairy industry which was expected to face stiff competition from Australia and New Zealand .

O’Connor said regardless of the agreement, New Zealand will share a good relationship with India. When asked about when would bilateral parleys begin with India, he said, “That’s part of the negotiations and discussions now. I can’t prejudge what they might mean but clearly we still have good relationships with all countries and whether India is part of the agreement, that’s up for India and its ministers to decide, we hope they are. We will have good relationships with your country here regardless of what…a trade agreement like RCEP would offer certainty for us all to the future.”

The minister also said that they will focus on high-value dairy products. “Dairy is the biggest export for our country. The total production from our country can only feed 40 million people. We’re very small part of total global production. India’s dairy industry is larger than ours and the only time we have exported to India has been to complement your production in times of drought,” he said.