Over 2 Billion People! The World'S Largest Free Trade Zone Is Coming Out, And China Is Among Them.

After 7 years' long distance running, RCEP negotiations finally achieved a major breakthrough in November 4th. A total population of about 3000000000 or 1/3 GDP of the world, the largest free trade zone in the world will soon be born.

Li Keqiang, premier of the State Council, attended the twenty-second meeting of leaders of ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) on the morning of November 4th morning in Bangkok, Thailand, and pointed out that the 15 member states of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) have concluded all text negotiations and virtually all markets have entered the negotiations.

Huo Jianguo, former president of the international trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and senior economist of CCG (global think tank), interviewed by daily economic news reporter, said that under the background of the continued downward pressure of global economic growth and the rise of trade protectionism, RCEP negotiations made significant breakthroughs, which delivered an encouraging news, opened up wider space for cooperation for enterprises, and the mobility of goods trade between members in the free trade area will be stronger, and the market access of service trade will be further reduced.

Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told reporters that the success of the RCEP negotiations means that countries and regions that make up nearly half of the world's population are expected to achieve low tariffs or even zero tariffs, which has opened up new space for the high quality development of China's foreign trade.

It is expected to lower tariffs on a wider scale.

RCEP was launched by ten ASEAN countries and invited China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India to participate in the free trade agreement aimed at establishing a unified market for the 16 countries by cutting tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

But the RCEP negotiations were not smooth sailing. The RCEP negotiations in 2012 overcame many difficulties in the "seven year long run" process. The gap in the level of economic development among member countries is large, and there is a big difference between the understanding and familiarity of free trade norms and the ability to execute, resulting in different demands and considerations in various fields of negotiations.

Li Keqiang pointed out that through joint efforts, the 15 member states of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) have concluded all text negotiations and virtually all market access negotiations. This is a major breakthrough in the construction of the East Asian Free Trade Area, the largest population in the world, the most diverse member structure and the greatest potential for development. It will surely push forward the process of regional economic integration, safeguard free trade and boost market confidence.

Huo Jianguo told the daily economic news reporter that the RCEP negotiations further expanded the scope to "10+5" on the basis of the previous "10+3" cooperation. Previously, China has established a free trade area with ten ASEAN countries, and China ASEAN Free Trade Area zero tariff has covered more than 90% of the tax items.

"RCEP negotiations will undoubtedly take a larger step in lowering tariff barriers. In the future, 95% or more tax products will not be excluded from the zero tariff range. Market space will be bigger. The expansion of Member States from 13 to 15 is a major policy advantage for foreign trade enterprises. Huo Jianguo said.

At the same time, the reporter noted that in recent years, trade between China and ASEAN countries has gradually increased, and China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, by the end of 2018, the two-way cumulative investment of China and ASEAN reached US $205 billion 710 million, and the two-way investment stock increased by 22 times in 15 years. ASEAN has become a key area for Chinese enterprises to invest abroad, and has played a positive role in promoting economic growth and promoting employment in various countries in the region.

China's ambassador to ASEAN, Huang Xi Lian, has said that the volume of trade between China and ASEAN has reached a record high in 2018, reaching 587 billion 800 million US dollars, an increase of 14.1% over the previous year. In the first half of this year, ASEAN surpassed the United States as China's second largest trading partner, and the bilateral trade volume reached 291 billion 850 million dollars, which is expected to reach 600 billion dollars a year.

The agreement will be formally signed next year.

On November 4th, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng made a briefing to the Chinese and foreign media after the Bangkok East Asian Cooperation leaders meeting. Le Yucheng said that the most prominent high-frequency words in this series of East Asian Cooperation leaders' meetings are appreciation and upgrading. All parties agreed that the connotation, value and level of East Asia cooperation are constantly enriched.

"Most importantly, just yesterday, the 15 member states of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) concluded all text negotiations and virtually all market access negotiations, and formally signed the agreement next year. This is a major breakthrough in regional economic integration. A world free trade zone with the largest population, the most members and the greatest potential for development is ready to come out. East Asian countries are moving towards the goal of building the East Asian community. Le Yucheng said.

At the press conference in November 4th, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also pointed out that, in general, the parties have agreed in principle to sign the agreement next year, which is encouraging. In the context of the current rise of unilateralism and protectionism, the above decisions have issued positive signals for East Asian countries to support multilateralism and support free trade. We should encourage the parties concerned to continue to participate in the negotiations in a constructive way, and strive to achieve substantive results as soon as possible.

According to the global times, on the morning of November 5th, according to a number of media reports in India and the confirmation of a spokesman for the Ministry of foreign affairs of India, India Prime Minister Modi has announced that the current negotiation content of the agreement is not conducive to India's national interests, so India will not join the agreement.

Bai Ming also said that India's openness was relatively low and the overall tariff level was high. India believes that its domestic industry is relatively fragile. Most industries such as iron and steel, automobile and so on are developed under the protection of the government. However, in recent years, its attitude towards openness is getting warmer. India is actively promoting the South Asian cooperation alliance with the countries in the region to jointly push down tariffs.