General

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) has been in effect for over a year, and its dividends in promoting regional trade and investment growth and economic recovery have been continuously released.

Customs data shows that in the first quarter of this year, China's total imports and exports to the other 14 member countries of RCEP reached 3.08 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%, accounting for 31.2% of China's total foreign trade value during the same period. Customs data shows that the proportion has increased by 0.8 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

The impact of RCEP on regional economic and trade cooperation has become apparent, and the "circle of friends" continues to expand. On June 2nd, RCEP is about to officially enter into force for the Philippines. At that time, RCEP will be fully implemented for 15 member countries, and the world's largest free trade zone will enter a new stage of comprehensive implementation, covering about one-third of the world's population and the global economy.

How to further unleash the potential of RCEP to deepen regional economic and trade cooperation and promote regional economic recovery, and jointly build the world's largest free trade zone? On May 21st, at the "2023 RCEP Regional Development Media Think Tank Forum for Jointly Building the World's Largest Free Trade Zone" held in Haikou, Hainan, multi country think tanks discussed and proposed practical suggestions.

Zhao Jinping, former Minister of Foreign Economic Affairs of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that currently, RCEP is facing a situation of "interception before and pursuit after". "On the one hand, RCEP is facing interference from trade protectionism and geopolitics; on the other hand, the process of regional economic integration is accelerating, such as the formation of the African Free Trade Area and gradually entering the regularization process. In this situation, it is imperative to continue to improve the liberalization level of RCEP

Building the world's largest free trade zone at a higher level

In the complex and severe global trade situation, the effective implementation of RCEP has brought tangible benefits to regional economic and trade development, and has also become a shining light for the global economy.

Customs data shows that in the first quarter of this year, China's total imports and exports to the other 14 member countries of RCEP reached 3.08 trillion yuan. Customs data shows that exports reached 1.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.2%. China's imports and exports to Singapore, Laos, and Myanmar all increased by more than 20%, reaching 45.8%, 37.8%, and 29%, respectively. The "RCEP Impact Assessment Report on Regional Economy" released by the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce states that by 2035, RCEP will drive the cumulative increase in regional exports and imports to reach 857.1 billion US dollars and 983.7 billion US dollars.

Wang Jian, Director of the International Business Research Center at the University of International Business and Economics, told reporters that the implementation of RCEP has taken effect, indicating that countries are willing to further develop trade and engage in deep cooperation. RCEP is an important achievement of regional economic integration.

At present, China is speeding up the issuance of certificate of origin. According to the data of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), from January last year to March this year, the national system for the promotion of international trade issued 201700 certificate of origin under RCEP, which is expected to reduce tariffs on Chinese products in RCEP importing member countries by about 126 million dollars.

While RCEP plays a role in driving regional economic growth, it also sets a new benchmark for opening up to the outside world. The openness level of RCEP in various fields such as goods trade, service investment, and rules is significantly higher than the openness level promised by China in the WTO. Firstly, in the field of trade, after RCEP officially takes effect, tariffs on over 90% of goods trade between approved member countries will eventually become zero; On the other hand, all 15 existing member states of RCEP have made commitments to openness in service trade that are higher than the original level of the "10+1" free trade agreement. In the field of investment, RCEP has made relevant commitments to non service industry investments using a negative list model, increasing investment protection efforts. China is based on RCEP and promotes domestic openness with more comprehensive international rules, making the implementation of the agreement a milestone.

RCEP has achieved significant results in enhancing regional economic integration and strengthening regional value chain cooperation. However, experts generally believe that there is still a need to further promote the improvement and upgrading of RCEP, and one important direction is institutional construction.

"As the domestic demographic dividend has declined, it is an important starting point for the continuous upgrading of RCEP to focus on the reform of systems and mechanisms and carry out high-quality and high-level opening up." Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China and an expert of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told reporters that promoting the upgrading of RCEP is not only to consolidate China's regionalization strategy, but also an important part in the process of seeking to formulate new rules for globalization.

Many experts suggest using the economic and trade framework of CPTPP as a reference standard for upgrading RCEP.

Zhao Jinping believes that although RCEP has advantages in terms of economic scale and member diversity, there is still a gap in its level of liberalization compared to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP). For example, the liberalization clauses in the e-commerce chapter of RCEP are mostly accompanied by exception clauses and have not been included in the dispute resolution mechanism. There is still great room for improvement in the future.

He Xiaoyong, Dean of the School of International Finance and Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, said that compared with CPTPP, RCEP still needs to be further opened in three aspects. First, the digital trade field is basically decided by the governments of member countries; Secondly, the openness requirements in the field of government procurement are relatively low, only increasing transparency requirements; Thirdly, the level of cross-border service trade openness needs to be further improved.

It is worth noting that the development of RCEP region is based on the market and rules. Therefore, relevant experts also suggest promoting the coordination and docking of market rules within the RCEP region.

In recent years, China has accelerated the pace of importing agricultural products from ASEAN countries. In response, Zhao Zhongxiu, the President of the University of International Business and Economics, proposed to accelerate the mutual recognition of inspection and quarantine results, promote the mutual recognition and joint development of technical standards, which is very beneficial for promoting trade in agricultural and industrial products.

In terms of customs clearance procedures, Fareha Khrawan, Director of the Economic Department of the Indonesian Center for Strategic and International Studies, stated that it is necessary to simplify and accelerate the updating of customs procedures, including the implementation of a single window system for trade documents and electronic customs clearance, further strengthening regional connectivity and economic integration, reducing trade costs and improving efficiency. Shereva, Director of the China Research Institute of the Royal Cambodian Academy of Sciences, believes that RCEP member countries should also unify their regulations and standards to reduce the costs associated with complying with different regulations in different markets.

With the continuous expansion of RCEP's "circle of friends", the degree of regional economic connectivity continues to deepen. Experts suggest timely promotion of RCEP expansion. The initiator of the China Europe Forum, Sada, stated that the EU should join RCEP and become an independent and confident economy in the economic and political fields. This will not only simplify the EU's trade landscape and make it a more active region in global trade, but also help create more resilient and diverse supply chains.

The Construction of China ASEAN Free Trade Area and the Interactive Growth of RCEP

In March of this year, Wang Shouwen, the representative and deputy minister of the Ministry of Commerce for international trade negotiations, stated that it is necessary to comprehensively promote the negotiations on the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, and take the creation of a digital economy and green economy as new highlights, so as to keep up with the times and make this agreement more modern.

Some experts believe that the completion of the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area will further upgrade RCEP, allowing Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and potential member states to further reduce trade in goods, services, investment and trade facilitation, and technical trade measures with the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area.

Wang Yiwei also told reporters that under the leadership of China, the largest economy in East Asia, in building the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, RCEP is more likely to exert synergistic effects.

Coinciding with the first anniversary of the implementation of RCEP, the construction of China ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 will be carried out on the basis of RCEP. At the meeting, experts discussed how to use RCEP as a foundation to promote the formation of a higher level and broader economic and trade cooperation pattern between China and ASEAN.

Shen Minghui, Vice President of the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that China needs to take the initiative to open up, especially to implement a higher level of openness to less developed economies in ASEAN. Based on this, with a focus on increasing the number of service trade opening sectors, we will promote the upgrade negotiations of the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area and fill the gap in China ASEAN digital trade rules.

Liu Enzong, Vice Dean of the School of Economics at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, believes that we need to go beyond the "zero tariff" market access stage, promote the construction of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area to move towards a digital green free trade area, deepen practical and efficient cooperation in fields such as digital economy, green economy, and new infrastructure, and promote cross-border flow of factors.

The open system will become a new driving force for the construction of version 3.0 of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area (300152). Former Vice Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao stated that the transition from a "positive list" to a "negative list" of service trade openness should be achieved as soon as possible, and institutional openness in rules, regulations, management, standards, and other areas should be steadily expanded. At the same time, China and ASEAN countries should be promoted to join the CPTPP and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) process, and more high standard free trade agreements should be negotiated and signed.

In recent years, China's comprehensive cooperation with ASEAN in areas such as trade, investment, and infrastructure construction has contributed to the economic recovery of ASEAN.

According to customs data, since 2009, China has maintained its position as the largest trading partner of ASEAN; Since 2020, ASEAN has maintained its position as China's largest trading partner. Last year was the beginning of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and ASEAN, with closer economic and trade exchanges between the two sides. The total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 6.52 trillion yuan, an increase of 15%, accounting for 15.5% of China's foreign trade, an increase of 1% compared to 2021.

In April of this year, the second round of negotiations for the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Relying on the negotiation of free trade agreements, China and ASEAN economic and trade cooperation will continue to deepen and strengthen, injecting a continuous stream of momentum into the stable development of global trade.

Wang Jian told reporters that the negotiations of the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area are mainly aimed at further reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers in this region, exploring cooperation and greater openness in the fields of digital economy, green economy, service trade and investment, especially for the future development of the digital economy, addressing the concerns of various countries, improving trade smoothness, deepening cooperation, and creating an environment of service openness.

I think the negotiation of a free trade area is a process of reaching consensus. The 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area negotiation will bring new business opportunities for trade and investment cooperation in the China ASEAN region. "Wang Jian said, especially in recent years, the integration of goods trade, services, and network data has become a crucial trend. China ASEAN Free Trade Area countries have expressed their desire for cooperation, and the policy environment for business operations in this region will also become relaxed in the future, The trade and investment in the new areas involved in the negotiations will definitely increase.

Looking ahead, Wang Yiwei told reporters that the construction of the 3.0 version of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area will promote the birth of the RCEP 2.0 version. "The key to the future pattern of globalization lies in high-quality and high standard rulemaking. Therefore, the standard for evaluating national competitiveness in the future will also be transformed from its original location advantage to its advantages in institutionalization and networking