The proposed FTA, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), is being negotiated by these countries in the Asia-Pacific region. “These positions keep changing during the negotiations, but we (India) are trying (to secure India’s interests in the services sector),” an official privy to the negotiations said. India, which has a vast pool of services professionals, including from IT/ITeS, sector, had been leading the talks on easing restrictions on temporary movement of professionals. Meanwhile, Indian information technology industry body Nasscom informed the RCEP trade negotiators on Tuesday that the Indian IT-ITeS sector had supported 4.54 lakh jobs in the RCEP region (excluding India). In a presentation,Gagan Sabharwal, director, Nasscom, also pointed out that the Indian IT sector was facing many problems in the RCEP region with regard to temporary movement of professionals.

Source: The Hindu July 26, 2017 21:00 UTC