India will only sign the 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade pact if its local industries are protected.
“India will protect its national interest while signing the deal,” Piyush Goyal, commerce and railways minister, told reporters on Wednesday. “We will certainly balance those industries, if any, where we feel there could be unfair advantage to Chinese companies.”
The RCEP is a proposed free-trade agreement between the 10 member states of Asean and its six free-trade partners China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Negotiations for an agreement are on.
Goyal said India has invited the RCEP nations' representatives on Sept. 14-15 to strengthen it and make it a more robust trading mechanism. The country has also asked South Korea and Japan to review free-trade agreements with India.
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