What does the RCEP "friend circle" mean to China and the world?
RCEP is a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreement; the preferential results of the agreement directly benefit consumers and industry enterprises
After 8 years, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was finally officially signed on November 15, 2020.
It is reported that RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement. The member states include 10 ASEAN countries and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The total population, economic volume, and total trade volume of these 15 member states account for about 30 of the global total. %.
What is RCEP?
What impact will the signing of RCEP have on China and the world?
What role does China play in this?
Yesterday, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy International Trade Representative Wang Shouwen stated in an interview with the media that RCEP is not only the world's largest free trade agreement, but also a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreement.
Among them, the total number of zero-tariff products in trade in goods exceeds 90%.
The level of service trade and investment liberalization is significantly higher than the original "10+1" free trade agreement.
The Ministry of Finance stated that the successful signing of RCEP will play an extremely important role in enhancing the economic recovery of countries after the epidemic and promoting long-term prosperity and development.
The further acceleration of the process of trade liberalization will bring greater promotion to regional economic and trade prosperity. The preferential results of the agreement will directly benefit consumers and industry enterprises, and will play an important role in enriching consumer market choices and reducing corporate trade costs.
Ministry of Commerce
It means that about one-third of the world's economy has formed an integrated market
1. What are the characteristics of RCEP?
Wang Shouwen said that overall, RCEP is not only the largest free trade agreement in the world, but also a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreement.
in particular:
RCEP is a comprehensive agreement.
It covers 20 chapters, including not only the market access of goods trade, service trade, investment, etc., but also a large number of regulations such as trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, e-commerce, competition policy, and government procurement.
It can be said that the agreement covers all aspects of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.
RCEP is a modernization agreement.
It adopts regional origin accumulation rules to support the development of regional industrial chain supply chains; adopts new technologies to promote customs facilitation and promotes the development of new cross-border logistics; adopts a negative list to make investment access commitments, which greatly enhances the transparency of investment policies; the agreement also includes The chapters on high-level intellectual property and e-commerce have been introduced to meet the needs of the digital economy era.
RCEP is a high-quality agreement.
The total number of zero-tariff products in trade in goods exceeds 90%.
The level of service trade and investment liberalization is significantly higher than the original "10+1" free trade agreement.
At the same time, RCEP has added a free trade relationship between China, Japan, Japan and South Korea, which has significantly increased the degree of free trade in the region.
According to calculations by international think tanks, in 2025, RCEP is expected to drive member countries’ export growth 10.4% higher than the baseline.
RCEP is a mutually beneficial agreement.
RCEP members include developed countries, developing countries, and some least developed countries. The economic systems, development levels, and scale of RCEP vary greatly among members.
The RCEP agreement takes into account the demands of all parties to the greatest extent, and achieves a balance of interests in the areas of market access and regulations such as goods, services and investment.
The agreement also gives differential treatment to the least developed countries, and specifically sets up two chapters on SMEs and economic and technical cooperation to help developing member countries strengthen capacity building, promote inclusive and balanced development in the region, and share the results of RCEP.
2. What is the significance of RCEP signing?
Wang Shouwen said that the signing of the RCEP agreement is a new milestone in East Asian regional economic integration.
The total population, economic volume, and total trade volume of the 15 member states of RCEP account for about 30% of the global total, which means that about one-third of the world's economies form an integrated market.
This will strongly boost regional trade and investment confidence, strengthen the industrial chain and supply chain, enhance the ability of all parties to cooperate in fighting the epidemic, boost the economic recovery of all countries, and promote the long-term prosperity and development of the region.
At the same time, RCEP will also provide a path and a strong push for the FTAAP process.
RCEP supports trade and investment liberalization and facilitation with practical actions, which will boost confidence in the global economy.
The signing of RCEP shows that all member states are committed to reducing tariffs, opening markets, and reducing standard barriers, sending a strong signal against unilateralism and protectionism, strongly supporting free trade and the multilateral trading system, and contributing to the formation of a positive impact on the global economy. Toward expectations, stimulate the global economic recovery after the epidemic.
RCEP will help my country accelerate the formation of a new development pattern.
RCEP member countries are my country's important economic and trade partners.
From January to September 2020, China's total trade with other RCEP member countries reached US$1,055 billion, accounting for about one-third of China's total foreign trade.
In particular, through the newly established Sino-Japanese free trade relationship through RCEP, my country’s trade coverage with free trade partners will increase from the current 27% to 35%.
The achievement of RCEP will help expand China’s export market space, meet the needs of domestic import consumption, strengthen the supply chain of the regional industrial chain, and help stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment. It will help to form a domestic and international double cycle that promotes each other. The new development pattern provides effective support.
3. When will RCEP take effect?
According to Wang Shouwen, according to RCEP, the agreement needs to be approved by at least 9 of the 15 member states, including at least 6 ASEAN member states and at least 3 of China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Now that the agreement has been signed, the member states of RCEP will perform their own domestic legal approval procedures and strive to promote the early implementation of the agreement.
The leaders have instructed the ministers to expedite the domestic approval process.
China will also work with all parties to make the RCEP agreement benefit businesses and people in the region as soon as possible.
(According to CCTV News)
Ministry of Finance
The preferential results of the agreement directly benefit consumers and industry enterprises
As a modern, comprehensive, high-level and reciprocal agreement, the RCEP agreement consists of a preamble, 20 chapters (mainly including trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, service trade, investment, e-commerce, government procurement, etc.), and trade in goods, Service trade, investment and temporary movement of natural persons are composed of commitment tables.
RCEP has achieved fruitful results in the liberalization of trade in goods.
Tariff reduction among member states is mainly based on the commitment to immediately reduce tariffs to zero tariffs and reduce tariffs to zero tariffs within ten years. The free trade zone is expected to achieve major phased construction results in a relatively short period of time.
For the first time, China and Japan reached a bilateral tariff reduction arrangement, achieving a historic breakthrough.
The agreement will help promote the realization of a high level of trade liberalization in the region.
The successful signing of RCEP plays an extremely important role in enhancing the economic recovery of countries after the epidemic and promoting long-term prosperity and development.
The further acceleration of the process of trade liberalization will bring greater promotion to regional economic and trade prosperity.
The preferential results of the agreement directly benefit consumers and industry enterprises, and will play an important role in enriching consumer market choices and reducing enterprise trade costs.
The Ministry of Finance conscientiously implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, actively participated in and promoted the RCEP agreement, and carried out a lot of meticulous work on tariff concessions on trade in goods.
In the next step, the Ministry of Finance will actively do a good job related to the tariff reduction of the agreement.
(According to CCTV News)
●Advance with the times
Include e-commerce and other chapters to adapt to the development of the digital economy
It is reported that the RCEP agreement consists of a preamble, 20 chapters, and a commitment table for trade in goods, trade in services, investment, and temporary movement of natural persons.
Wang Shouwen introduced in the above-mentioned media interviews that RCEP adopts regional rules of origin accumulation to support the development of regional industrial chain supply chains; adopts new technologies to promote customs facilitation and promotes the development of new cross-border logistics; adopts a negative list to make investment access commitments, greatly Improve the transparency of investment policies; the agreement also includes high-level intellectual property and e-commerce chapters to meet the needs of the digital economy.
Zhou Maohua, an analyst at the Financial Markets Department of Everbright Bank, told reporters that the RCEP free trade zone is a free trade agreement that covers one third of the world's total economic output, has the most diverse global membership structure and the greatest potential for development.
The signing of RCEP means that the tariffs (non-tariff barriers) and other trade restrictions of the member states in the region will be greatly reduced and gradually eliminated, the flow of factors in the region will be more smooth, trade and investment will be more free and convenient, and the cooperation between the industrial and supply chains in the region will be promoted. It can significantly reduce the production costs and entry barriers of enterprises in the region, stimulate investment, improve employment, and promote consumption and economic recovery. At the same time, the increase in trade freedom and facilitation will also help reduce poverty and uneven economic development in the region.
Zhou Maohua believes that e-commerce, as one of the core components of the digital economy, has developed rapidly in China in recent years, and e-commerce has accelerated the digital transformation of my country's economy.
First, in recent years, the online retail of physical goods in China has shown a double-digit growth trend, and its proportion in the retail sales of consumer goods in the whole society has been rising; second, cross-border e-commerce has changed the traditional cross-border trade organization form, and residents can stay at home. Buy and sell global” to improve the efficiency of cross-border trade and expand overseas markets for enterprises; third, the integration of e-commerce and digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence, not only innovating new formats and business models, but also speeding up the line The integration of online e-commerce and offline traditional industrial chains and supply chains.
■ Expert interpretation
●Meaning to China
It is a landmark event second only to WTO in the field of foreign trade and economic cooperation
"The signing of RCEP is, for China, a landmark event second only to WTO in the field of foreign trade and economic cooperation," Peng Bo, an associate researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, told a reporter from the Beijing News.
Zhou Maohua said that for China, the conclusion of the world’s largest free trade agreement will deepen cooperation between China and other member states, promote active trade and investment in the region, help release the potential of the domestic market, stimulate employment and the economy, and improve overall social welfare. At the same time, it can also promote the diversification of China's trade and reduce the excessive dependence of my country's foreign trade on the traditional European and American markets.
"In addition, among the 15 member states of RCEP, there are both developed economies and developing countries, with a diversified economic structure. Each member country has comparative advantages in their respective industries. Competition and cooperation between all parties will promote industrial innovation." Zhou Maohua further analyzed.
Peng Bo also analyzed the Beijing News reporter that the significance of the RCEP signing for China is to protect the external market and stabilize the foreign trade situation; further strengthen the ability to deal with trade frictions; promote the further development of the dual cycle, strengthen the internal cycle, and enhance the external cycle.
For the world, this agreement has also partially repaired the impact and destruction of the global economic and trade structure caused by trade frictions. At the same time, it has also promoted the world economy to recover from the impact of the epidemic faster and better; in addition, it has also promoted the Asia-Pacific region. Economic cooperation.
●Historic breakthrough
China and Japan reached a bilateral tariff reduction arrangement for the first time
The signing of RCEP allowed China and Japan to reach a bilateral tariff concession arrangement for the first time, achieving a historic breakthrough.
Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said in an interview that, in fact, the coverage of RCEP alone is not particularly large, because among the 15 participating countries, except Japan, China has already competed with other countries. 13 countries have signed free trade agreements, but Japan has the most gold content. After all, Japan is the third largest economy in the world, and China is the second largest economy. The “second” and the third “join together”. The resultant force and energy released by the "door-to-door pair" is huge. In addition, South Korea has also joined RCEP, and the cohesion of China, Japan and South Korea is also great.
Zhou Maohua believes that China and Japan reached a bilateral tariff reduction arrangement for the first time, which will promote the "quality" and "quantity" of bilateral trade between China and Japan.
China and Japan have obvious complementary features in terms of economic structure and trade structure. Lowering tariffs will help reduce bilateral trade costs, enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of bilateral trade, and release trade potential.
●RCEP large "circle of friends"
In addition to solving bilateral trade, it can also solve "you, me, and him" multilateral trade issues
Bai Ming analyzed that the formal signing of RCEP is not only a simple expansion of space, but also a richer cooperation content. Although we cooperate closely with some countries, we do not have an institutional carrier, which is relatively loose, and the free trade agreement can only Resolve the trade between "me and you" between countries, but RCEP is a whole. In addition to solving bilateral trade, it can also solve "you, me and him" third and fourth countries' multilateral trade issues, especially Industry chain-related trade may involve 7 or 8 countries. After signing the agreement, problems that were originally to be solved outside the region can be resolved within the region.
"Therefore, for China, the official signing of RCEP means that China has expanded the space to participate in economic globalization. Almost 20 years ago, the'entry into the WTO' brought strong impetus to the Chinese economy. Now, trade protectionism and anti-globalization thinking With the tide surging, the development of world trade has encountered serious obstacles, and China is a large trading country and is moving towards a strong trading country. If there is not enough external space as a guarantee, then this series of ideas will be difficult to realize." Bai Ming analyzed.
Beijing News reporter Pan Yichun