RCEP Helps Accelerate And Upgrade Regional Economic And Trade Cooperation

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) will come into force one year later. International observers believe that although the COVID-19 epidemic has been delayed and repeated, and the global economic situation is complex and severe, RCEP has continued to release dividends to help accelerate and upgrade regional economic and trade cooperation. Regional economic cooperation has maintained a sound momentum of development, showing strong resilience and great potential.

Improve quality and efficiency of trade and investment

After the formal implementation of RCEP on January 1 this year, tariff concessions, cumulative rules of origin, trade facilitation and other institutional dividends have brought tangible growth and benefits to countries and their enterprises.

Olamon, Director of the Trade Negotiation Department of the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, said that the most obvious benefit of RCEP's entry into force and implementation was to boost trade among member countries in the region and further promote regional economic integration. According to the data of the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, in the first nine months of this year, the total import and export value of Thailand and RCEP member countries increased by 10.1% year-on-year.

Hu Yishan, chief consultant of Malaysian Pacific Research Center, said that for Southeast Asian countries, RCEP has played an important role in further eliminating intra regional trade barriers.

Liu Ziyang, a professor at Gyeonggi University in South Korea, said that RCEP is not only a free trade agreement with the largest population and largest economic and trade scale in the world, but also a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreement.

A series of arrangements represented by the cumulative rules of origin of RCEP are effectively reducing regional production costs, improving trade efficiency, and strengthening regional industrial chain supply chain cooperation. Li Yan, the Chinese chairman of Petronas, said that RCEP has promoted regional industrial circulation and division of labor cooperation, formed a mechanism of resource and technology complementarity, and helped member countries to give full play to their advantages in international trade.

Common development adds momentum

At present, the world economy is sluggish, and economic globalization and free trade are facing severe challenges. Observers believe that RCEP provides stability and certainty for the regional economy and even the world economy, effectively hedging against the impact of unilateralism and trade protectionism.

Gu Qingyang, associate professor of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that in the context of world economic difficulties, RCEP injected strong growth momentum into emerging markets. The latest report of the Asian Development Bank raised the economic growth expectation of Southeast Asia from 5.1% to 5.5% in 2022, reflecting to some extent the expectation of RCEP to stimulate the economy of ASEAN countries.

Peter Dresdale, director of the East Asia Economic Research Institute of the Australian National University, said that in the first year of its entry into force, RCEP has shown the importance of filling the gap in the free trade agreement, boosting regional trade and strengthening regional supply chains, and has the potential to project the dividends of Asian trade to the world as a platform.

Gao Jinhua, Assistant Prime Minister of Cambodia, said that RCEP is a victory of free trade and multilateralism. Through joint efforts, RCEP has become the world's largest free trade area shared by all, and all member countries will benefit from RCEP cooperation.

Zhang Jinxiong, general chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, said that RCEP integrates funds, resources, expertise and services to form a complete regional economic cooperation cycle and ecology. In the uncertain world development pattern, RCEP provides stability and orderliness, which can promote the sustainable development of regional and even world economy in the future.

Broad prospects for multilateral cooperation

The latest data from the General Administration of Customs of China shows that in the first 11 months of this year, China's import and export to ASEAN increased by 15.5% year-on-year, higher than the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade. China is still the largest trading partner of ASEAN, and ASEAN's position as China's largest trading partner has been further consolidated.

Observers believe that China has provided market space and industrial system support for RCEP to fully release institutional dividends, and has made important contributions to promoting the prosperity and development of the Asia Pacific region.

Song Sai, Vice Premier of Laos, said that RCEP will help expand the flow of goods, funds and services, improve the resilience of regional value chains, and better integrate them into the construction process of China ASEAN Free Trade Area.

Liu Ziyang believes that, for South Korea and China, RCEP is conducive to improving the level of trade liberalization between the two countries, promoting the deepening of cooperation in the third-party market, and will also promote the cooperation between South Korea and China in scientific and technological innovation, service industry and other fields.

Under the RCEP framework, China and ASEAN have broader common interests in sharing the super large market, further exerting complementary advantages, and reasonably allocating production factors, and the prospect of industrial chain supply chain cooperation is also broader.

Nakzuka Runichiro, vice president of the China Japan Chamber of Commerce and general representative of Mitsubishi Corporation in East Asia, said that China, Japan, ASEAN and others could further play their respective advantages to achieve effective complementarity and integration, and "cooperation is promising".