PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte sees robust trade among ASEAN and other nations as a way to narrow the development gap.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte continued his play for regional peace anchored on robust trade by asking India to approve the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal.

The ground rules for the China-supported RCEP have already been approved by 15 parties to the deal, with India said to be the only holdover.

Mr. Duterte issued the call for India to affirm the RCEP to resolve the development gap among nations during the ASEAN-India Summit on Sunday.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez confirmed 15 nations have already approved the rules for RCEP with India’s affirmation being awaited after it raised issues like the possibility of Chinese products flooding its shores.

Earlier, Duterte backed the RCEP during the ASEAN Summit plenary and the ASEAN-China Summit.

In a report by Agence France-Presse, the signing of the RCEP will likely be kicked back to 2020, according to a draft statement by Southeast Asian leaders, delaying a deal craved by China as it seeks to temper the fallout from a painful tariff war with the US.

The 16-nation RCEP spans from India to New Zealand and includes 30 percent of global GDP and half of the world’s people.

Objections by India have dampened hopes of finalizing the pact at this weekend’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bangkok, where members of the 10-nation bloc have been joined by the premiers of India and China.

“Most market access negotiations have been completed and the few outstanding bilateral issues will be resolved by Feb 2020,” said a draft agreement obtained by AFP.

Negotiations have sputtered for several years, but the statement said the text of all 20 chapters was now complete “pending the resolution of one” member, believed to be India.

But it said all members were “committed to sign the RCEP” next year in Vietnam, which will take over the ASEAN chair.

New Delhi is worried its small businesses will be hard hit by any flood of cheap Chinese goods.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeated his country’s concerns during talks with ASEAN leaders on Sunday.

Modi said India’s unresolved issues include “meaningful market access for all parties”, according to a diplomat who attended the meeting, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Beijing sees RCEP as a central pillar of its trade strategy for its Asian neighbourhood, and it is backed by the leaders of ASEAN and who represent a 650 million-strong market.

Concluding the deal has been made more pressing by the brutal tit-for-tat trade war with the US, which has chipped back at growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy.

RCEP — which includes the 10-nation ASEAN bloc along with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — accounts for 40 percent of global commerce.

The tariffs lobbed by the US and China on billions of dollars worth of each others’ goods could drag growth to the lowest rate in over a decade, according to the IMF.

“Let us get this job done sooner than later as we are given the assurance of tranquillity of the area,” he said.