India's Trade Prospects with RCEP Countries: Evidence from Trade Indices.

The paper examines India's trade prospects with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries during 2000-2019. The study uses the contribution to the trade balance index and the export similarity index. The findings show that India's imports increased faster than exports with all sample countries except Singapore, Myanmar, and Lao De Republic during the sample period. India has a high revealed comparative advantage in textile, consumer goods, chemicals, and food products with RCEP countries. However, untapped potential in its specialised products can be explored, as Indonesia's top export product, i.e., ships and boats floating structures, has a negative CTB & POS value compared to South Korea's product Petrol Oil Bitium Mineral (nt Crud) Etc Nt Biodiesel. Further, the export similarity index reveals low values, implying that India has no such trade competition from member countries in its top 10 exports among any non-member countries. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that many opportunities are waiting. Still, before that, the government has to bring reforms in trade policy with sample countries so that India would benefit from RCEP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]