What Happened After seven years of talks, the push to finalize the world's largest free trade zone has been delayed by at least several months. On Nov. 4, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bangkok, alluding to long-standing concerns over China's widening trade surplus with India and demands for enhanced market access for Indian exporters. Thailand has since highlighted a "commitment" by all ASEAN member nations to now sign the RCEP agreement with their six free trade partners (India, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand) by sometime next year. Why It Matters In RCEP negotiations, India has pushed to only gradually grant bloc members (namely, China) wider access to its market, fearing that a sudden surge of imports could cut domestic jobs.