RCEP Deal to be delayed to 2020

A recently released draft statement by Southeast Asian leaders stated that the signing of the world’s largest trade pact will likely be kicked back to 2020. Objections by India have once again clouded hopes of finalising the pact at this weekend’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bangkok. India is worried that its small businesses will be hard hit by any flood of cheap Chinese goods creating “unsustainable trade deficits” — Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said in an interview published by the Bangkok Post. The deal is stated to be concluded in Feb’20.