India Deeply Concerned Of Trade Deficit With China, RCEP Must Make Economic Sense: External Affairs Minister Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar has highlighted the growing trade deficit between India and China to express reservations about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, ET reports.

"The big concerns of India are of course, one, its relationship with China because we have an enormous trade deficit with China,” Jaishankar said on India’s stance on the RCEP.

The RCEP seeks to create which might prove to be the biggest trade pact including 16 nations covering over 50 per cent of the world population and a third of the economy. The agreement is being negotiated between the ASEAN block of 10 countries along with India, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

However, particularly for India, it might mean easier access for Chinese export giants to the Indian market even as Indian firms in the respective fields are just beginning to rise. India’s trade deficit with China had widened to $57.86 billion in 2018 over $51.72 billion in 2017.

Negotiations on the deal are ongoing at Bangkok where the EAM is representing India. "RCEP, at the end of the day, is an economic negotiation. It has a strategic implication but the merits... have to be economic," he said at a conference.