NEW DELHI: Rolling back of mega trade deal Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be beneficial for India as some of its provisions are not in the country's interest, say experts.
"The rollback of TPP should be of some relief to India since this mega regional trade agreement was threatening to re-write the trade rules, most of which were inimical to India's interests," Trade economist and Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University Biswajit Dhar said.
However, he cautioned that if the US withdraws from the globalisation bandwagon, there is a distinct possibility of China filling its shoes.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump formally pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership as he signed an executive action to withdraw from the negotiating process of the 12- nation trade deal, one of the major international trade initiatives of his predecessor Barack Obama.
Its signatories -- Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Brunei -- together represent 40 per cent of the world economy.
India needs to explore opportunities in all the TPP member countries to boost its trade, Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Rakesh Mohan Joshi said.
Sharing similar views, a global trade analysts stated that certain provisions of TPP was against the interest of India.
"Indian companies needs to improve their product competitiveness and standards to compete in the global markets," the analyst added.
Earlier in the day when asked about the roll back by the US, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: "We can only watch because we are not part of the TPP and what the new US administration is doing is what probably they had spoken during the elections as part of their campaign. Since India is not part of TPP, we can only observe what is going on".
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com