NEW DELHI: The government told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it did not join the mega free trade agreement RCEP as the grouping did not address the outstanding issues and concerns of India.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in a written reply to the House said that during the third RCEP Leaders Summit on November 4 in Bangkok, India stated that the current structure did not reflect its guiding principles or address the outstanding issues and concerns of India, in the light of which India did not join the agreement.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) bloc comprised 10 Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) group members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and their six FTA partners -- India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
He said that RCEP had provisions on trade remedies which also covers anti-dumping rules. "Moreover, India was seeking an automatic trigger safeguard mechanism (ATSM) for tackling import surges," he added.
Replying to a separate question on start-ups, he said 7,141 start-ups are recognised by the DPIIT during this fiscal till November 5. Out of this, a maximum of 1,778 are from Maharashtra. It is followed by Karnataka with 1,374 start-ups, Delhi with 1,152 and Uttar Pradesh with 709. In terms of sector, a maximum of 1,351 start-ups are from IT sector.
It is followed by healthcare (808), education (658), professional and commercial services (400) and finance technology (362).