TIME FOR MODI-BIDEN TANGO

Having deliberately opted out of the world’s largest trade bloc, RCEP, India can now push for the limited trade deal with the US

- Joe C. Mathew

He (Joe Biden) won because the election was rigged...” A tweet from US President Donald Trump on November 15 was his first acknowledgement that he has lost the presidential elections. The same day, something symbolically significant happened in another corner of the world. Fifteen countries, mostly Asian, signed the world's biggest free trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, which covers 30 per cent of the global economy.

Trump has been an advocate of trade protectionism. He started a major trade war with China and, to a lesser extent, with other countries, including India. One of his first decisions after taking charge in 2016 was pulling the US out of what could have been the world’s largest free trade agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership, which represented 40 per cent of global GDP.

The change of government in the US and the deal for economic integration among RCEP members, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, apart from Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea and Japan, can have a direct impact on India’s plans to export goods and services worth $1 trillion by 2025. In fact, more trade with the US is exactly what India needs to compensate for whatever market access it may lose by opting out of RCEP (India stayed out at the last moment despite being one of the 16 negotiating partners). RCEP members have kept the option open for India to join later, but the country seems to be more inclined towards closer ties with the US than China, the strongest player in RCEP.