India’s long cherished dream of entering the APEC is fraught with formidable challenges.– Comment.

Civil Services Main Examination

General Studies (Paper - 2) : Model Question & Answers


APECQuestion: “India’s long cherished dream of entering the APEC is fraught with formidable challenges.” – Comment.

Answer: Though India’s economic resilience in the context of Chinese slowdown is well acknowledged in Asia-Pacific, entry into APEC is a formidable challenge due to the geographical imperative that India is not a Pacific Ocean country, a logic so central to its creation in 1989. Smaller APEC members fear that India’s admission will lead to a shift of the epicentre of APEC from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

Similarly APEC takes decision consensually, and unless all its members are supportive of India’s entry the issue will be kept at abeyance. Some members do not appreciate India’s WTO activism.

Further there is a perception that India was not sufficiently supportive of a regional economic integration agenda, which led to the rejection of India in 1998 while APEC admitted Peru, Russia and Vietnam.

Equally pertinent is the criticism that India’s laws are not yet synchronized with APEC rules. India still has a long way to go to simplify trade procedures and rules for doing business. In spite of all, the challenges are worth overcoming as India may find it difficult to achieve Prime Minister’s goal to create 100 million manufacturing jobs by 2022, if it finds itself outside of the Asia-Pacific trade picture.

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