India Rules Out Taking Part In Talks To Join 15-Nation Trading Bloc
NDTV
Piyush Goyal said that some of the countries (during the RCEP negotiations) were not following the rule of law while being opaque in trade talks.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has ruled out India resuming talks to join the 'Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)', saying that the country walked out of the negotiations two years ago to give primacy to the national interest.
Mr Goyal said that some of the countries (during the RCEP negotiations) were not following the rule of law while being opaque in trade talks.
"India lost precious time because of an ill-conceived decision to start discussing and taking part in the RCEP negotiation," said Mr Goyal criticising the then Congress-led UPA government for joining the negotiations.
He said that the decision was taken 10 years ago by the then government to make India a party to the RCEP negotiations. Mr Goyal added that the NDA government "did our very best to engage with the grouping of 15 other countries".
