RCEP Set Sail, Regional And Global Economic Growth Ushered In Strong Momentum

The fourth regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) leaders' meeting was held by video yesterday. Witnessed by the leaders of the 15 countries, the trade ministers of all countries signed the RCEP agreement. This marks the official launch of the free trade zone with the largest population, the most diverse membership structure and the most potential for development in the world.

"The completion of RCEP free trade zone means that about one third of the global economy will form an integrated market. RCEP covers the major countries in East Asia and will inject strong impetus into regional and global economic growth. " The head of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

Tariff barriers are significantly reduced, and it is more convenient for consumers to shop and travel

Currently, RCEP is jointly signed by ten ASEAN countries and 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In 2019, the total population of the 15 member countries will reach 2.27 billion, GDP will reach 26 trillion US dollars, and the total export volume will reach 5.2 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 30% of the global total.

In the RCEP agreement, the tariff concessions among the members are mainly the promise to reduce the tariff to zero immediately and within ten years. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the number of final zero tariff products in the agreement will exceed 90%, and the overall opening level of service trade and investment is relatively high.

It is worth mentioning that China and Japan have reached a bilateral tariff reduction arrangement for the first time, which has achieved a historic breakthrough. This is the first time that China has signed a free trade agreement with the world's top ten economies.

"From the perspective of consumers, a lot of high-quality consumer goods from other countries will enter the Chinese market with lower tariffs and more convenient procedures, including through e-commerce platforms, so that business personnel will flow more freely and travel abroad will be more convenient." Chen Liang, an associate researcher at the Institute of world economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with Shanghai Securities News.

Good textile and clothing, port shipping and other industries

"The signing of RCEP has a greater impact on China's high-end industries. There were no free trade agreements between Japan, South Korea and China and Japan before the signing of RCEP. The signing of this Agreement may help the cooperation of relevant countries in semiconductor and other fields, but there are still some factors such as technical regulation." Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Institute of international trade and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, told Shanghai Securities News.

RCEP signing will also bring benefits to many other domestic industries, such as port, shipping, tourism, textile manufacturing, etc. Haitong Securities textile and clothing industry analysts said that after RCEP reached, textile manufacturing enterprises will reduce the cost of cotton and improve their profitability.

Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce and deputy representative of international trade negotiations, once gave an example: "take the clothing industry as an example. China imports wool from Australia and New Zealand. Because of the signing of the free trade agreement, China may import wool duty-free in the future. After import, the cloth will be woven in China. The cloth may be exported to Vietnam, and Vietnam will export it to Korea after it is made into clothing China, Japan, China and other countries may be duty-free, which will promote the development of the local textile and clothing industry. "

The amount of textile export tariff will be close to US $3.5 billion, which will help to enhance the export competitiveness of China.

Help China build a new development pattern of "double cycle"

The signing of RCEP agreement is also the driving force for China's stable development under the new development pattern of "double cycle". Luo Huanjie, a senior researcher at Zhixin Investment Research Institute, said in an interview with Shanghai Securities News that the signing of RCEP will not only promote China's consumption growth, but also further deepen China's opening-up level.

The person in charge of the International Department of the Ministry of commerce also said that RCEP will help China to form a new "double cycle" development pattern, which will be conducive to China's opening-up to drive domestic innovation, promote reform and development, continuously realize industrial transformation and upgrading, consolidate China's position in the regional industrial chain supply chain, and provide effective support for the virtuous cycle of the national economy.

"The other 14 RCEP countries have different commodity endowments, including the source of raw materials and commodities, the holders of core technology and industrial capital, and the developing countries whose demographic dividend has yet to be released." Luo Huanjie said, "more than 90% of the products and services in the region will gradually enter the Chinese market with zero tariff, and cross-border e-commerce will become more vigorous. There will be new opportunities to expand the scale of consumption, promote the development of new formats and cultivate medium and high-end consumption."

Data shows that after RCEP is signed, China will sign 19 free trade agreements and 26 free trade partners. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the signing of RCEP will increase the trade coverage between China and its free trade partners to about 35%, greatly enhance the "gold content" of China's free trade zone network, and help China build a new open economic system with a higher level.

Enhance the level of regional economic integration in East Asia

In the context of the global epidemic and the resurgence of trade protectionism, the signing of RCEP is a milestone for the whole East Asia regional economic integration. "The signing of RCEP helps to harmonize and unify regional economic and trade rules, effectively reduce the compliance costs of traders and investors in the region, improve the transparency and predictability of policies, and improve the overall business environment of the region," Chen Liang said

"The regional economic integration of North America and the European Union has finally ushered in an overall free trade agreement in East Asia, which is conducive to the division of labor among countries within the region and the expansion of the free flow of goods, capital and other elements in the region," Bai Ming said

Wang Shouwen once pointed out that the formation of a unified free trade area in the region is conducive to the formation of supply chain and value chain in the region according to its comparative advantages. It will have great benefits to the flow of goods, technology, services, capital, including the cross-border flow of people in the region, forming the "trade creation" effect.

"RCEP has deepened the value chain of regional industrial chain by adopting regional cumulative rules of origin; promoted the development of new cross-border logistics by using new technologies to promote customs facilitation; and promoted investment liberalization and transparency of investment policy by adopting negative list, which will promote the optimization and integration of regional economic and trade rules." Department of international commerce.

RCEP was initiated by ASEAN in 2012 and has gone through 8 years and 31 rounds of formal negotiations. Since this year, RCEP member states have finally completed the legal review of more than 14000 pages of texts and signed the agreement as scheduled. According to the person in charge of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce, this is the most important achievement of East Asian economic integration in the past 20 years. According to the calculation of international well-known think tanks, by 2025, RCEP is expected to increase the export, foreign investment stock and GDP of member countries by 10.4%, 2.6% and 1.8% respectively compared with the base line.