Major breakthrough made in RCEP negotiations, pact to be signed in 2020
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E-mail Xinhua, November 5, 2019
Fifteen participating countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will start legal preparations for the signing of the mega free-trade pact in 2020, after concluding text-based negotiations and essentially all market access issues.
"Against the backdrop of a fast-changing global environment, the completion of the RCEP negotiations will demonstrate our collective commitment to an open trade and investment environment across the region," leaders of the RCEP countrie said in a joint statement at a summit in Bangkok on Monday.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called the latest progress in the seven-year-long RCEP negotiations "a major breakthrough in the construction of an East Asia free trade area, which would boast the largest population, most diversified membership and greatest potential for development."
Signing next year
The RCEP agreement is "intended to further expand and deepen regional value chains for the benefits of our businesses, including small and medium enterprises, as well as our workers, producers, and consumers," the leaders said in the statement, noting they have tasked legal scrubbing to start for signing in 2020.
Officially launched in 2012, the RCEP brings together the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their six trade partners in the region, namely China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Once signed, it will form the largest free-trade agreement in Asia, covering 47.4 percent of the world's population, and accounting for 32.2 percent of global GDP, 29.1 percent of trade worldwide and 32.5 percent of global investment.
"ASEAN will benefit from increased market access to trading partners," Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said after hosting the 35th ASEAN summit and related meetings.
However, the breakthrough deal did not include India, which still has significant outstanding issues with other members.
"All RCEP participating countries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satisfactory way," the leaders said in the statement. "India's final decision will depend on satisfactory resolution of these issues."
Zhang Xuegang, researcher and vice president of the Southeast Asia and Oceania Research Center of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said the RCEP negotiations involved pragmatic areas including each country's industries, market access and trade balance, "which are directly related to people's livelihood."
"It is reasonable that the countries have been cautious in the talks," Zhang said.
Largest win-win agreement
"The RCEP is a multilateral trade cooperation, which means its structure is truly meant to benefit all participating countries because all will be governed under the same trade rules," Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center (CMSRRC) of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, told Xinhua.
The RCEP will reduce trade barriers coupled with enhanced market access and will make each RCEP member more attractive to foreign investors and encourage cross-border investments amongst RCEP members, he added.
It will have a positive role in boosting economic development of all participating countries, and will help them integrate further with the global economy, said Yu Miaojie, vice president of National School of Development at Peking University.
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