Commerce ministers of 16 countries including India and Japan which are negotiating the mega free trade agreement RCEP will hold a crucial meeting in Beijing next month to iron out differences and push the negotiations forward, an official said

China will host a ministerial conference of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) from Aug. 2 to 3 in Beijing, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Trade officials from 16 nations across the Asia-Pacific region will sit down in the Australian city of Melbourne on Friday, to negotiate the terms of RCEP.

ASEAN members reached an overall common position on RCEP during their meeting in Bangkok on Saturday.

India is pushing for a revenue-sharing agreement with Chinaunder the proposed mega trade deal RCEP to ensure that domestic film producers get their rightful dues from revenue generated by showing Bollywood movies in China, an official said.

The Philippines expects the completion of the e-commerce provisions of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) within the first half of the year.

The US and China are highly unlikely to join the line of economies keen to join the landmark Pacific Rim trade deal that recently entered into force, even though they stand to benefit from doing so, said a panel of trade experts and Asian diplomats on Thursday (Jan 10).

The RCEP recently held the 24th round of negotiations since the group first began the talks in early 2013.

Indian officials will hold bilateral meetings with a few countries, including China and some ASEAN members, in the coming days to iron out issues hindering negotiations of RCEP mega trade deal, an official said.

Six years in the making, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is slated to become an ASEAN-centric, comprehensive free trade area. Its 16 negotiating parties are racing to reach a “substantial conclusion” by the ASEAN summit of mid-November 2018. But even if this deadline is not met, RCEP is poised to make large contributions to Asian and global economic cooperation.