India’s Ministry of Steel has officially communicated that steel should be kept out of talks on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the proposed regional trade partnership of 16 nations, a senior government official said on Monday, August 20.
He said that the recommendation of keeping steel out of RCEP talks has been submitted to the interministerial committee advising the Ministry of Commerce for the ongoing trade talks.
The stand to keep steel out of the negotiations is based on consultations between Indian steel companies and the Ministry of Steel and the fact that India has a 2 million mt trade deficit in steel products with China and India joining RCEP with China among the members will further aggravate inward shipment of steel products from that country, the official said.