General

Faced with the profound and complex changes in the current global economic and political landscape, building a transparent, shared, and predictable RCEP requires active promotion from the government level, as well as proactive measures taken at the information, industry, and local levels. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Chi Fulin, President of China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, recently put forward the following 8 suggestions on pragmatically promoting the RCEP process at the seminar on "New Globalization, RCEP and the Future of Chinese Cities".

Shorten the transition period and promote the implementation of RCEP tariff reduction commitments as soon as possible. It is recommended to jointly negotiate and shorten the "zero tariff" transition period for important raw materials and key components as much as possible on the basis of existing commitments, to ensure the stability and safety of the regional industrial chain supply chain; Give full play to the role of China's import market, create conditions to achieve the full implementation of tariff reduction commitments as soon as possible, and make the Chinese market a large market shared by RCEP; Promote the transition from "national tariff reduction" to "unified tariff reduction" in China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and other countries, and promote the construction of a regional unified market.

Promote the transformation of RCEP origin accumulation rules to complete accumulation. The rules of origin accumulation are a significant achievement of RCEP, and from a practical perspective, the dividends of the rules of origin accumulation still need to be released. In 2022, Chinese enterprises utilizing RCEP rules of origin accounted for only 3.56% of their total exports to other RCEP member countries. It is recommended to transition from promoting "origin accumulation" to a "complete accumulation" that includes the value-added processing of non originating goods in the accumulation scope as soon as possible, as a follow-up negotiation topic for RCEP accumulation rules, significantly improving the convenience of enterprises using the rules; Promote the review of the independent declaration terms of RCEP origin enterprises, that is, allow the declaration documents of origin issued by the traders of RCEP member countries to have the same effect as the certificate documents of origin issued by the visa agencies.

Promote the implementation of negative list management in service trade. To fully unleash the huge development space of service trade in the region, it is recommended to develop and implement a national version of the negative list of cross-border service trade, and to implement the commitment to opening up in areas such as professional services and computer services in advance; Actively expand the import of high-quality services from other RCEP member countries with a focus on ASEAN through platforms such as the Service Trade Fair, Import Expo, and Consumer Expo; Accelerate the negotiations between China and ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 with a focus on service trade, and strive to form a free and convenient institutional arrangement for cross-border service trade between China and ASEAN that is higher than RCEP; Utilizing the free and convenient system arrangement of service trade formed for the first time between China and Japan, promoting an important breakthrough in the development of bilateral productive service trade, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Adapt to the development of RCEP trade and enhance the consistency of domestic and international standards. Realistically, the technical barriers to trade caused by standard differences have become an important factor restricting the release of the potential of RCEP economic and trade cooperation. Suggest the development of a differentiated liability exemption directory for goods and services standards facing ASEAN, allowing foreign enterprises to choose Chinese or local standards for industries and businesses within the directory, and minimizing trade costs caused by standard differences; Carry out bilateral and multilateral standard mutual recognition negotiations within the RCEP region, establish a green channel for the domestic application of international standards, and promote the implementation of more internationally accepted standards for domestic application; Support relevant think tanks and research institutions to carry out research on technical barriers to trade, and timely summarize and release the market access system for conformity assessment of RCEP member countries and relevant adjustment information.

Establish cooperation demonstration zones to promote high-quality implementation of RCEP by local governments. Support conditional places to carry out pilot and cooperative explorations with standards higher than the current RCEP rules, forming a leading demonstration for high-quality implementation of RCEP in China. It is recommended to support Hainan Free Trade Port in fully utilizing the overlapping effects of RCEP rules such as rules of origin and service trade openness, while conducting high-level opening pressure tests on benchmark CPTPP, in order to explore a path for leading the upgrade and expansion of RCEP in the future; Support domestic pilot free trade zones to achieve strategic improvement with a focus on taking the lead in fully implementing the relevant rules of RCEP, and grant them greater autonomy in reform and opening up, with a focus on institutional innovation targeting clauses in RCEP that express relative principles and have greater government discretion; Support Guangdong, Guangxi, and other regions with close economic and trade exchanges with ASEAN countries to build regional national markets with unique characteristics and targeting different member countries, and create advantageous industrial clusters for RCEP. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Implement a series of special actions to guide enterprises to deeply participate in RCEP cooperation. Suggest implementing the "going global" action for enterprises and supporting their investment layout in agriculture, digital economy, energy industry, and other fields in ASEAN related countries using RCEP rules; Carry out industrial chain supply chain optimization and adjustment actions, support enterprises to improve the safety of the industrial chain supply chain, fully utilize RCEP origin accumulation rules to carry out industrial chain supply chain layout, and cultivate and create a diversified supply network; Implement the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, encourage enterprises to actively utilize the advanced technologies of other RCEP member countries, strengthen resource, technology, and equipment support, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries; Implement enterprise trade optimization and adjustment actions, assist enterprises in exploring RCEP export markets with a focus on ASEAN, and promote further agglomeration of export markets into the RCEP region.

Strengthen supporting services for enterprises with a focus on RCEP capacity building. To improve the utilization rate of RCEP rules by enterprises, it is recommended to establish a RCEP capacity building center for ASEAN government officials and entrepreneurs in Hainan Free Trade Port, and carry out special training and typical case promotion on the application of RCEP rules; Establish special assistance projects at the government level for underdeveloped countries in RCEP, and provide professional education and training assistance in areas such as digital skills, professional services, science and technology, public health, and talent cultivation for small and medium-sized enterprises; Develop the "Guidelines for Compliance Management of External Investment and Overseas Operations of Enterprises" and establish a regular update mechanism, with a focus on forming basic compliance guidelines for local safety reviews, industry supervision, foreign exchange management, labor management, environmental protection, and other regulations. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Actively participate in the construction of RCEP governance mechanism and organizational system. On the premise of respecting the central position of ASEAN, actively participate in the construction of RCEP governance mechanism and organizational system. Negotiate and cooperate with ASEAN to promote the establishment of the RCEP Secretariat; Actively participate in the formation of the four professional committees to be established under the RCEP Joint Committee: the Goods Committee, the Services and Investment Committee, the Sustainable Development Committee, and the Business Environment Committee, and actively participate in the competition for important positions; Accelerate the promotion of Hong Kong's accession to RCEP and rely on the existing economic and trade cooperation network in the mainland to attract relevant countries from both domestic and foreign regions to join RCEP; Actively building public service platforms such as RCEP dispute resolution electronic service platform to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the region to carry out dispute resolution at lower costs, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.