India decides not to join Asian free-trade pact | Money Talks

Hope that the world's biggest trade deal would be signed this year have been dashed after India announced it is pulling-out of the pact. New Delhi made the announcement after a meeting of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bangkok. ASEAN members have been racing to approve the China-backed trade deal as a way to push back against US protectionism, as Sibel Karkus reports. For more on this, Phar Kim Beng joins me live from London. He's a political economist and the founder of Echo Strategic.