BANGKOK, Nov 3 — It is disappointing that the much talked about Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that aims to promote free trade in Asia Pacific that would have benefited half the world’s population is still ongoing after seven years, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The prime minister is here for the 35th Asean Summit and other related summits.
“We are very disappointed. It should have been concluded in its first year,” he told a press conference with Malaysian media after several discussions involving Asean and non-member countries and groupings.
However, he acknowledged that negotiations involving the 10 Asean member states and six other countries in the Asia Pacific were complicated.
“Multilateralism needs consensus,” he said, adding that negotiations cannot continue if one country disagrees.
Dr Mahathir did not state if it was only one country that was blocking the conclusion of the negotiations.
However, the local Thai press and international wires have reported India raising recent objections and asking for changes to several issues on the China-led trade pact, to protect its own huge domestic market.
Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darrell Leiking, who was also present at the same press conference, was non-committal on the progress of the negotiations.
He said some issues were raised during the Asean talks with India earlier and to wait for a statement to be issued on the matter.
The RCEP is seen as a successor to the earlier proposed Trans Pacific Trade Partnership involving 12 countries that was led by the US until its abrupt pull-out following the election of Donald Trump as president in 2017.
It would have been the world’s biggest free-trade pact, aimed at encouraging business and investment by reducing cost of a diverse range of goods and services if it had continued.
