Hurry with Atmanirbharata!

The Country was busy with the swearing-in-ceremony at Bihar and Pakistan’s ceasefire violations at our borders. My mind was locked elsewhere, at the fifteen countries coming together in a trading agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The agreement was signed on the 15th November 2020 at the ASEAN summit hosted by Vietnam.

RCEP is a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific Region between ASEAN members, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam with five FTA partners, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. These fifteen countries account for nearly 30% of the global GDP, making it the largest trading block. The agreement could come into force in the next two years, subject to the ratification of the member countries.

India pulled out of the Agreement in November 2019, citing concerns of dumping of Chinese manufactured goods as well as agricultural and dairy products from Australia and New Zealand, which would have seriously impacted our domestic sector. The provisions for the protection of intellectual property rights were also flagged. India’s absence would boost the dependency of the RCEP members more towards China.

The world is looking for every scope to boost the shattered economy, impacted by COVID pandemic. India is in a similar situation and is trying to recover its position by negotiating individual agreements with many of the ASEAN members. India, in my opinion, is affected the China phobia and is relying on its much-touted ‘Atmanirbhar,’ which I hope may not yield a short-term economic recovery. Business fundamentals are ruthless and emotionless as could be seen from Japan, Australia and South Korea, all the three avowed adversaries to China, signing the RCEP.

Curse me, but the fact that is missed is Atmanirbharata comes from abundance, in money and materials. Let us presume that the banks become benevolent and philanthropic by loosening its purse-strings and manufacturing sector gets a boost. That alone is not enough for successful growth. Demand has to be created. For creating demand, there must be money in the pockets of ordinary citizens. That means jobs, which are needed to be created. 

The transitionary world is fighting between a borderless world market, co-existing with an increased threat to free trade as we have recently witnessed between the US and China. We may have tamed China on the Northern borders, but that may have little relevance to the Chinese might in trade. India cannot stand in isolation and hope to record a double-digit growth any time soon.

Our PM is attending the twelfth BRICS summit today and is addressing on terrorism and the threat to our borders. If we tolerate China in the BRICS, I wonder why we cannot tolerate it in RCEP. Before all that, let us begin by strengthening our region’s SAARC agreement before the dragon devours them all and flood the cheap Chinese goods through many thousand miles of our porous borders.

Rejecting the participation of RCEP may not be the best move by India!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix