The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which is fully known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), has been negotiated by 15 countries since 2012, including China, Japan, South Korea, and India, and officially entered into force in January last year. The ultimate goal of the agreement is to reduce tariffs on goods between member countries by 90% and increase the convenience of all countries.
For Bangladesh, which is relatively economically backward, joining the RCEP means being able to easily export goods to other member countries, including China, and import goods from RCEP member countries at a lower price. This is a huge opportunity for Bangladesh to drive the country's economic growth and industrial development.
It is worth noting that Bangladesh generally has a favorable view of China at home. According to a recent poll by a think tank, more than 90 percent of Bangladeshis are optimistic about China-Bangladesh relations, and the ruling party in Bangladesh intends to focus its economy on cooperation with China. As a result, it is expected that the parties that support joining the RCEP are likely to win the National Assembly elections. If Bangladesh succeeds in joining the RCEP, it will bring two disadvantages to India's economy and **.
India is concerned about the impact of Bangladesh's accession to RCEP. First, Bangladesh's accession to the RCEP may reduce the demand for Indian goods, thus affecting India's exports to Bangladesh. Second, India is worried that Chinese goods will circumvent the principle of origin and enter the Indian market through Bangladesh ports. At present, Bangladesh imports far less goods to India than to China. Once Bangladesh joins the RCEP, tariffs between China and Bangladesh will be reduced, resulting in Bangladesh importing more goods from China, thereby reducing purchases of Indian goods, which will ultimately affect India's income.
However, the above view is just wishful thinking on the part of India, and does not fully correspond to the facts. First of all, Chinese goods are not completely in competition with Indian goods, because Chinese goods have certain advantages in terms of quality and quality. Even if there is competition, this is a normal business practice, and India should think more about how to improve its competitiveness than maliciously attack China-Bangladesh cooperation.
Second, Bangladesh does not need to act as a "middleman". After all, this kind of behavior is easy to detect, and the economic effect is not obvious. Bangladesh's interest in RCEP is solely for the sake of promoting its own economic growth and industrial development, and has nothing to do with other countries. Therefore, there is no reason for India to intervene in Bangladesh's decision-making.
In fact, India's real concern is that if Bangladesh joins the RCEP and other South Asian countries follow suit, it will shake India's economic hegemony in the region. Therefore, India will spare no effort to prevent Bangladesh from joining the RCEP, while ** first raised the possibility of India-Bangladesh FTA negotiations.
Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries in the world, and before the country takes off this hat, India hopes to sign a free trade agreement with Bangladesh as soon as possible to promote the ** and economic cooperation between the two countries. In September last year, India and Bangladesh launched the negotiation process for a free trade agreement.
However, there has been a reversal of India's attitude. They said that the impact of Bangladesh's accession to RCEP on Indian industry needs to be reassessed, so the FTA negotiations with Bangladesh will be reconsidered. This is effectively a threat, meaning that if Bangladesh insists on joining the RCEP, India will no longer negotiate a free trade agreement with it.
However, this threat did not work for Bangladesh. Because the expected economic benefits of joining RCEP far outweigh the benefits of signing a free trade agreement with India, Bangladesh will not change its decision because of India's threats.
Looking back at the whole incident, India tried to prevent Bangladesh from joining the RCEP through the threat of a free trade agreement between the two countries, but did not achieve the desired result. This shows that India's tactics are inappropriate, and it also reflects Bangladesh's determination to join the RCEP without interference.
It seems to me that India is too concerned about the implications of Bangladesh's accession to RCEP and has resorted to perverse means to block Bangladesh's decision. In contrast, I believe that India should think about how to improve its competitiveness from its own perspective, rather than maintaining its regional economic hegemony by interfering with the cooperation of other countries.
In addition, as a regional** agreement, the ultimate goal of RCEP is to create benefits and mutually beneficial opportunities for all countries. As a member of this group, India should actively participate in cooperation to promote common development and prosperity.
Finally, I hope that India can learn from this incident and realize that cooperation and competition are not contradictory, and that it can achieve better development by enhancing its economic strength and competitiveness. At the same time, it is hoped that Bangladesh can firm up its decision, join RCEP and get more benefits and development opportunities from it.