External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal gave detailed presentations on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent foreign visits and India’s stand on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), in the BJP parliamentary party meeting here on Tuesday, sources said. This assumes significance after India earlier this month decided not to join the RCEP agreement as its key concerns were not addressed. The key issues behind India’s decision included inadequate protection against import surge, insufficient differential with China, possible circumvention of rules of origin, keeping the base year as 2014 and no credible assurances on market access and non-tariff barriers. RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member-states of ASEAN and FTA partners. Goyal had said earlier that the country will be open to further discussions on RCEP if its demands are met and the trade deficit is balanced. Meanwhile, the BJP parliamentary meeting was held today ahead of the second day of the Parliament’s winter session. Several leaders including party president Amit Shah and working president JP Nadda participated in the meet.
