General

The RCEP, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, has become the world's largest free trade agreement. According to the agreement on the liberalization of trade in goods, more than 90% of the trade in goods in the region will eventually achieve zero tariffs, which will help stimulate the vitality of intra-regional trade and expand the scale of my country's foreign trade.

"For Chinese enterprises that have import and export trade with other RCEP members, the goods that fall on the RCEP tax reduction list, after meeting the rules of origin stipulated in the agreement, use the RCEP certificate of origin or relevant certificates of origin to You can enjoy preferential tariff treatment when importing and exporting." The relevant person in charge of the Commercial Certification Center of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said in an interview with a reporter from China Trade News.

From January to April 2022, the number of certificate of origin visas under the Free Trade Agreement of the National Trade Promotion System totaled 375,200, a year-on-year increase of 22.11%; the total visa amount was US$17.352 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31.72%. Relevant importing countries and regions have reduced or exempted tariffs of US$867 million. Among them, the issuance of certificates of origin under the China-Japan Free Trade Agreement has increased significantly.

At the regular press conference held by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Yu Yi, a spokesman for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the RCEP certificate of origin allows my country's foreign trade enterprises to enjoy tariff reductions and exemptions from exports to Japan for the first time, and actively promotes the further expansion of the ASEAN market. At the same time, it has also laid an important foundation for building a more open and inclusive regional economic and trade cooperation.

Yu Yi pointed out that from the point of view of the export destination country of the RCEP certificate, Japan has ranked first in the RCEP certificate of origin visa amount for four consecutive months. Enterprises exporting to Japan have fully realized the policy dividends brought by the implementation of the RCEP agreement, which also shows that the implementation of the RCEP agreement has huge potential to boost my exports to Japan.

The above-mentioned person in charge said that before RCEP came into effect, China had signed bilateral or plurilateral free trade agreements with other 13 members except Japan, such as China-Korea, China-Australia, China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreements, etc. After the RCEP came into effect, China and Japan established a free trade partnership for the first time. The import and export of goods from both sides can enjoy the most-favored-nation tax rate far lower than the previous applicable WTO framework through the issuance of the RCEP certificate of origin.

The relevant person in charge of the Commercial Certification Center of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade said that the certification center will continue to strengthen the coordination and guidance of the relevant work of the visa agencies in the CCPIT system, and do a good job in the development of the origin visa system, the standardized management of visas, and the tracking and statistical analysis of visa data; Compile the FTA Business Application Guide, RCEP Interpretation and Application Electronic Guide; carry out RCEP publicity and promotion in an all-round and multi-angle; make full use of the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) service website of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to publish various FTA information, local developments, and case compilations , authoritative information, frequently asked questions, to provide enterprises with a full range of online FTA services; and vigorously invest in professional talents, select key areas, and adopt the "online + offline" integration model according to local conditions. Special topics such as analysis of opportunities and challenges in key industries and application practice guidance are carried out to carry out publicity, training, forums, and lectures to help enterprises comprehensively improve their awareness and ability to use RCEP.