General

The achievement of RCEP means that trade liberalization has entered a new stage, enriching and developing the connotation of international economic and trade cooperation system and mechanism. First of all, on the whole, the members of the agreement will achieve zero tariffs of more than 90% of the tax items, which is conducive to the convenient flow of goods, technology, services, capital and personnel in the region, effectively promoting international trade and investment and enhancing the attractiveness of foreign investment. Secondly, through RCEP, the free trade relationship between China, Japan and South Korea has been added, and China has reached a free trade agreement with Japan and Japan and South Korea for the first time. This will undoubtedly give China greater encouragement, greater opportunities and greater determination in the new development pattern with the domestic big cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycles promoting each other. Third, this agreement has formulated relatively strict rules for e-commerce, and China's e-commerce is ranked first in the world in terms of scale, effect, practice and total volume. After joining, it can better comply with the digital trend, use and even influence the revision of digital rules in the future. International trade has broad prospects and unlimited possibilities. RCEP has opened another splendid article in China's opening up process. We must write it well and write it well.

Therefore, the author suggests: first, continue to promote institutional openness. In the process of the gradual implementation of RCEP, we should not "join the crowd", but "watch the doorways". The so-called "watch the doorways" is that through RCEP, we can really understand the gap with the world, which is like a mirror, reflecting the direction of our efforts, and more importantly, find more cooperation space with other parties. In this regard, China's free trade zone should take the initiative to carry out serious research, in-depth analysis and efforts to advance around RCEP. Hainan Free Trade Port and Shanghai Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area should sort out and test all the provisions of the standard RCEP, further integrate international practices and rules, establish the concept of "rule based", steadily promote the deep opening of trade, investment and financial markets, strive to create a strategic link of domestic and international double circulation, and gradually replicate and promote in 21 free trade zones across the country, giving full play to the advantages of first and first, Explore new ways and accumulate experience for the further expansion of opening up of the country.

For example, the new Lingang District has made many explorations in the opening up of the financial sector, issued "30 financial rules", and released the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Emerging Financial Industry in the New Lingang District (2022-2025)" on the occasion of the third anniversary of the opening of the new district this year, accelerating the formation of a financial opening and innovation system to promote capital freedom. On this basis, in accordance with the higher level of economic and trade rules in the RCEP, we can further expand the scope of financial opening such as banking, securities and insurance market access, carry out the pilot of high-level opening of foreign exchange management, support enterprises to increase the proportion of the use of RMB in cross-border trade settlement and other financial services trade, promote the cross-border two-way flow of RMB funds, and attract more foreign institutions to participate in the Chinese financial market, We will prosper cross-border finance and related supporting industries, and build a financial service system that is compatible with international high standards.

Secondly, actively explore digital trade. Digital trade is the direction of future trade development and the focus of a new round of international competition. RCEP clearly treats digital trade with a more open attitude. While promoting cross-border trade, it also regulates cross-border data transmission. For example, the chapter on "e-commerce" and the chapter on "intellectual property" (which is the largest and longest chapter in the RCEP agreement, with special emphasis on intellectual property protection in the Internet era) restrict cross-border data transmission. China still has a lot of room to explore in this area. Taking the financial industry as an example, domestic financial institutions still rely heavily on SWIFT in international payment and settlement, and their support for CIPS (RMB Cross-border Payment System) is insufficient. Domestic and foreign financial institutions need to transfer business, customer and enterprise management data between their branches at home and abroad, and involve data interaction between different application software, which is subject to many restrictions in practice.

It is suggested to actively explore a new mechanism for cross-border digital flow with RCEP members, properly handle the institutional linkage between the implementation of domestic laws such as the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China and the negotiation of international high standard trade agreements, improve the supervision of cross-border data and digital trade, and support and promote more financial institutions to participate in the cross-border data flow innovation pilot, In view of the "specific scenarios of specific enterprises, it is allowed to carry out exploratory pilot projects within a certain period of time", and around the special needs of some special application scenarios, such as offshore financial services, "two-in-one" digital trade services, explore the establishment of more free, convenient and efficient international data circulation and data services in the new port area, and promote the upgrading of CIPS, And accumulate experience for China to participate in the construction of global digital trade rules system.

Third, continuously optimize the business environment. If we want to swim in the ocean of international trade market, we must optimize the business environment. Many contents of RCEP involve these. How to evaluate the business environment? There are five dimensions in the world, namely, political stability and integrity, economic activity and order, cultural inclusion and characteristics, social fairness and justice, and the rule of law is sound and advancing with the times. Whether it is RCEP, or CPTPP and other high-level international trade and economic agreements in recent years, among many provisions, "one fair and four protection" is always the core, that is, the fair competition environment and the protection of investors' rights and interests, workers' rights and interests, environmental protection and intellectual property protection.

China's high-level opening up is to promote in-depth reform and opening up. We should combine institutional opening with comprehensive reform. Therefore, we should create a more fair, convenient, predictable and attractive environment for foreign investment, respect and conform to international practices in market access, commercial registration, enterprise operation, social services, etc., further improve the level of trade and investment facilitation, improve the international commercial legal service system, strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of market entities, and take marketization, legalization and internationalization as the goal, Establish an institutional system connected with the RCEP rules. The business environment is not the best, only the better. We should carry out the reform to the end with such determination.

RCEP has strengthened its confidence in economic globalization, looking forward and moving forward, and international trade has made great progress. We should promote cooperation in the process of opening up, share the grand event with the people of the world and share the future!