On November 15, 2020, in the grim situation of the spread of the global new crown epidemic and the severe hindrance of international trade and investment, the ten ASEAN countries and 15 countries of China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand have taken extraordinary determination and milestone measures to resolute Implementing free trade and multilateral cooperation, and jointly and decisively signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), which is of great practical significance and far-reaching strategic significance to all member states.
The signing of RCEP is a major achievement of Asia-Pacific regional cooperation and is of great significance. It has brought the economic integration of the Asia-Pacific region into a new stage of development. It will play an important and active role in RCEP regional economic growth, promote global economic recovery, and maintain the multilateral trading system. To the changes in the world economic structure and international trade landscape. The signing of RCEP was selected as the "Top Ten International News in 2020" by mainstream media in many countries around the world.
In economic globalization, it is an important choice for many countries to make good use of the open and cooperative development mode of free trade agreements. The increase in the number and quality of global free trade agreements has become the vast majority of countries to expand mutual trade and investment scale and support the economy. Strategic actions for growth. The number of signed and implemented free trade agreements has increased from more than 20 in the early 1990s to nearly 500 in 2020. The number of free trade agreements involving Asian economies accounted for more than half of the global total.
RCEP aims at a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and inclusive free trade agreement, benchmarking against high-level international free trade rules, and forming more open, free and transparent economic and trade rules in the region, covering goods trade, service trade and investment. Etc. The text of the agreement is more than 14,000 pages long. The total number of zero-tariff products in trade in goods exceeds 90%, which greatly reduces trade costs and commodity prices in the region. The commitment to open service trade covers most service sectors, which is significantly higher than the current free trade agreement between all parties and ASEAN. In terms of investment, the 15 parties have adopted the negative list to make high-level openness commitments to investment in manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishery, and mining, and policy transparency has been significantly improved. All parties have also formulated regulations on small and medium-sized enterprises, economic and technological cooperation, etc., incorporating modern topics such as intellectual property rights, e-commerce, competition policies, and government procurement to meet the needs of the development of the knowledge economy and digital economy.
RCEP is expected to take effect at the end of 2021. More than 90% of the goods trade in the region will eventually achieve zero tariffs through tax reductions in stages, and increase linkage and integration development.
The main features of RCEP:
First is the large scale. RCEP is a free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economy, the most diverse membership structure, and the greatest development potential in the world. It covers approximately 30% of the world’s population, 30% of the total economy, and 30% of foreign trade.
Second, RCEP has opened up more fields than WTO.
Third, there is a foundation. The free trade agreements (10+1FTA) implemented by the ten ASEAN countries and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are integrated and upgraded, and have the basis of FTA. The five 10+1 strategic partnerships have promoted a series of cooperation between the two parties in the past ten years.
Fourth is ASEAN dominates. East Asian characteristics-initiated and led by ASEAN, which is mainly composed of developing countries.
Fifth, the demand for cooperation has risen. RCEP countries have an increasing demand for cooperative development of regional development space, cooperating to cope with the sluggish world economic growth for many years and the current severe decline, and coping with the rising demand for international trade protectionism.
Sixth, RCEP countries have close trade and investment relations, reflecting strong industrial complementarity. Within the RCEP framework, China, Japan, Japan and South Korea have reached a breakthrough in free trade consensus. The construction of RCEP is not only conducive to the expansion of trade scale and mutual investment between member countries, and brings more trade creation, but also conducive to RCEP member countries to attract external investment.
Seven is that after 8 years of negotiation, they have fully brewed the changes brought about by the open market.
The signing of RCEP is another major opening up achievement after China’s accession to the WTO. It will have a profound impact on promoting a new round of high-level opening up and opening up a new situation of win-win cooperation; it will enhance the connectivity between the two international and domestic markets and two resources. , So that China can more effectively integrate into the global industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain, promote industrial transformation and upgrading and high-quality economic development, promote domestic and international dual cycles, and accelerate the construction of a new development pattern; help promote the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" High-quality development will promote the construction of an open world economy and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
China has played an important role in reaching consensus on RCEP. China has always supported ASEAN’s central position, participated in the negotiations throughout the process and played a positive and constructive role. Negotiations are facing difficult twists and turns and critical moments. China actively coordinates the positions of all parties, puts forward China's propositions and Chinese plans, promotes the formation of consensus and consensus among all parties, and contributes Chinese wisdom and strength. Upholding the concept of mutual benefit, win-win and common development, China has fully demonstrated its sincerity and made a high-level commitment to openness. In terms of trade in goods, RCEP’s preferential tariffs cover the annual import and export trade between my country and other members of more than 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars. In terms of trade in services, my country has made open commitments to more than 120 service departments, which is 22 more departments than my country’s WTO commitments, including research and development, professional design, and elderly care services. For the first time, my country reached an investment negative list in economic and trade negotiations, included data flow-related regulations in an international agreement for the first time, and comprehensively included intellectual property protection in a free trade agreement for the first time. Through its own deepening of reforms and opening up, China has promoted and improved the level of regional trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.
