RCEP ready to boost recovery and multilateralism, forum says

BEIJING (China Daily/Asia News Network): The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is aimed at accelerating regional economic integration, injecting new growth momentum into global economic recovery, and strengthening multilateralism and free trade, said experts on Sunday 23 January.

They made the remarks during the RCEP Media & Think Tank Roundtable on “RCEP Comes into Force: New Perspectives for Regional Cooperation and Development.”

The forum was jointly organized by the Publicity Department of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, China Daily, the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development and the Hainan Institute for Free Port Studies. -exchange.

The agreement went into effect on January 1 in 10 of RCEP’s 15 member states. The world’s largest trade pact, it covers a third of the world’s population and gross domestic product and will add more resilience to regional industrial and supply chains, experts said.

Speaking at the event’s opening ceremony, Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said a unified regional market would unleash the region’s enormous trade growth potential.

It will also vigorously promote higher-quality and deeper regional economic integration, and enhance the presence of the Asia-Pacific region in the global economic and trade arena, he added.

The implementation of the trade pact is a testament to true multilateralism and free trade, which also points to a future of mutually beneficial cooperation with open practices and win-win outcomes, Zhou said.

“Removing barriers like walls instead of building more is the trend of history, and it is in the interests of the people of the world to firmly support a multilateral trading system,” he said.

The free trade agreement was signed by 15 Asia-Pacific countries, including the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in November 2020. It entered into force in China , Japan, Australia, New Zealand and six ASEAN states – Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam－early this year and will be implemented in South Korea on February 1 .

With provisions on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, the pact is widely expected to boost regional economic growth and global free trade.

Hong Nanwei, general manager of Fujian Chuangxing Ocean Sci-Tech Co, a frozen seafood processor and exporter in Quanzhou, Fujian province, said that with the reductions and elimination of tariffs in the pact, the company is more confident about better growth in overseas markets.

Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, said tariffs on about 90 percent of goods traded in the region will eventually be eliminated and significantly reduce trade costs and product prices.

Cumulative rules of origin, which allow products to have only 40% of their value added in the region to qualify for tariff reduction or elimination, will encourage businesses to source from the region.

This will then promote the formation of a closer, more stable and more competitive regional industrial cooperation system, according to Chi, who is also president of the Hainan Free Trade Port Studies Institute.

Chen Geng, chairman of Fashion Flying Group, a large-scale outerwear manufacturer based in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, said the RCEP deal will help the company tap into the potential of South Asian markets. South East.

Citing a study by the Asian Development Bank, Bert Hofman, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said the pact will boost incomes of member economies by more than 0.5% by 2030. , adding some $245 billion in annual revenue. and 2.8 million jobs in regional employment.

“It’s important for humanity to work together and benefit from globalization and benefit from high standards of trade,” Hofman said.

Chi suggested that member economies step up efforts to speed up alignment of market regulations and share and recognize customs clearance information to speed up the formation of a united regional market.

Efforts are also needed to advance the building of integrated markets in key areas such as agricultural products, services and the digital economy, he said.

Ong Tee Keat, president of the Center for New Inclusive Asia in Malaysia, and also a former Malaysian transport minister, said the regional free trade agreement could serve as a cornerstone for multilateralism in the future.