Vietnam as 2020 ASEAN Summit host, hopeful of India-RCEP breakthrough

After PM Modi successfully co-chaired 16th India-ASEAN summit in Thailand, next 2020 ASEAN summit will be happening under chairmanship of Vietnam. Reacting over summit happening in Vietnam and India's concerns over Regional Comprehensive Ecomic Partnership, Vietnam's ambassor to India Pham Sanh Chau spoke about Vietnam assuming chairmanship and Free Tre Agreement. 

He said, "Vietnam will assume chairmanship of ASEAN Summit in 2020 & we hope that under our chairmanship, we will be able to sign that important Free Tre Agreement (FTA)." 

Pham Sanh Chau also dressed to India's concerns over t signing RCEP deal. He said, "We understand concerns raised by India in terms of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Ecomic Partnership) but we hope all concerned parties will be able to sit down & dress differences in a satisfactory way." 

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What is RCEP?

Regional Comprehensive Ecomic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free tre agreement (FTA) between ten member states of Association of Souast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its six FTA partners, launched in 2012. member nations include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and FTA members include China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. agreement aims at dropping tariffs and duties between members to allow a free flow of goods and services.

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What are India's concerns?

India is wary of this agreement, as government feels with lowering of import duties, domestic industries will t be able to compete with China and inflow of goods. main sectors which would feel pinch are milk industry, textile and trers, according to experts. According to reports, recent slowdown in India's core industry would also affect in case tariffs are lowered.

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