Beijing/UNI: China on Tuesday said it would work with all participating countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to resolve the outstanding issues raised by India and welcome New Delhi to join the free trade pact at an early date.
Leaders of 10 ASEAN countries and their six trade partners met in in the Thai capital Bangkok on Monday and discussed inking the RCEP at which Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India's decision not to join the deal, saying that "the present form of the RCEP Agreement does not fully reflect the basic spirt and the agreed guiding principles of the RCEP and also does not address satisfactorily India's outstanding issues and concerns."
Asked for comments on India not joining the RCEP, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stressed that "China will continue to work with all parties to resolve the outstanding issues for India through negotiationsi n the spirit of mutual understanding and accommodation. We welcome the joining of India at an early date."
Geng said the RCEP isis a regional FTA featuring mutual benefits in nature.
"Once signed and put in place, the RCEP will help Chinese goods go to the Indian and other participating countries' markets. In the same vein, it will also help Indian goods to enter China's and other participating countries' markets. This is a two-way and complementary arrangement"
As emerging markets and major developing countries, if put together, China and India boast a huge market of 2.7 billion people with tremendous potential in trade. China doesn't pursue trade surplus against India. Over the past five years, China's imports from India increased by 15 per cent.
The two sides should explore more ways and comprehensive measures to step up cooperation in investment, production capacity, and tourism, making the pie even bigger and fostering balanced and sustainable trade relations. he said.
A joint statement released after the meeting noted that 15 participating countries have concluded text-based negotiations for all 20 chapters and essentially all their market access issues, and tasked legal scrubbing by them to commence for signing in 2020.
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