Trade Ministers of 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic partnership (RCEP) bloc to meet today

Trade Ministers of 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) bloc, including India and China are meeting in Singapore today. The two-day meeting will deliberate upon issues hindering the negotiations of the proposed mega trade deal. Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu will attend the meeting. 

RCEP is a mega trade pact aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights. The meeting is important as the 16-member



bloc now needs specific political guidance to move the negotiations further.

 

The bloc comprises 10 ASEAN members , Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam  and their six FTA partners India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

 

The government has set up a four-member Group of Ministers headed by Mr Prabhu to fine tune its strategy on  the RCEP ministerial meet.