Four years ago, India was reluctant to **, and four years later, other countries joined, and India put this on hold.
According to related reports, Bangladesh is planning to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP. Now we are almost in the negotiation process. In January next year, Bangladesh will be "officially announced".
India is quite unhappy about this. Some sources even came out to reveal that India wants to reassess the negotiations on a free trade agreement with Bangladesh. It seems that India is still not self-aware enough, isn't it clear which one India or RCEP to choose?
It should be known that India, like China, was the leading country of RCEP. As a result, India felt that joining the RCEP would suffer in terms of tariffs, deficits and non-tariff barriers, and directly withdrew from the agreement.
It is worth mentioning that in the past few years of RCEP operation, not only has there been no various situations that India is worried about, but it has become a mutually beneficial and win-win "economic and trade express". The total GDP of the contracting states also surpassed that of the European Union (179%), NAFTA (28%), African Continental Free Trade Area (2.).9%) and Mercosur (2.).4%), reaching a staggering 305%。
It is no exaggeration to say that the countries that have joined the RCEP have enjoyed a lot of dividends, and only India has "retreated bravely", letting go of the great development opportunities in vain. Now that Bangladesh wants to catch up with China, India is naturally unhappy.
Not only that, Bangladesh is India's largest partner in South Asia, which is of great strategic importance to India. Especially at present, India's deficit with China has reached 831In the case of 900 million US dollars, the presence of Bangladesh is even more important.
But for Bangladesh, whether to choose India or RCEP is not a question at all. India and RCEP are not of the same magnitude here. It should be noted that the degree of reciprocity of a free trade agreement depends fundamentally on the industrial structure of both sides. Bangladesh and China are highly complementary, but they are highly overlapping with India, and it is clear who has more "money" to mix with.
Truth be told, from India's own point of view, there is really nothing wrong with their choice. The main reason is that the means are too rough and the vision is not long-term enough. As a small country, Bangladesh does not need to consider independent industrialization and industrial upgrading. But India has the ambition of a so-called "big country with a voice and color", and it is normal to be worried. But India's main problem is that it does not join the RCEP because it is worried that China will compete with him.
We have long been persuaded to do so. Four years ago, we told India that we were willing to make mutual understandings and mutual concessions, negotiate with India to resolve difficulties, and had no intention of pursuing a surplus with India. On the one hand, it wants to compete with China, and on the other hand, it also feels that RCEP is a "threat" to India, and it still withdrew from the group four years ago.
After years of verification, the effects of RCEP have been revealed. Now it is not only Bangladesh that wants to enter, but also another neighbor of India, Sri Lanka. Not only that, Sri Lanka submitted an application to join the RCEP in August this year.
But then again, India is unhappy now, is it possible that other countries are unhappy that they can join the RCEP, but they can't pull down their faces to join?
In any case, we have already persuaded this RCEP, and other countries have seen the gold content of China's "Dongfeng" and want to join, and we welcome it. On the Indian side, if there are still "good words that are hard to persuade damn ghosts", we can't help it. India wants to "isolate" the whole world, and in the end it will only isolate itself from the whole world!