The entry into force of RCEP will strongly promote my country's high-level opening up
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) will come into effect on January 1, 2022.
As the world’s largest free trade zone, RCEP’s 15 member states account for nearly 30% of the world’s GDP, population, and trade scale. The market space and potential are huge, and a series of facilitation and liberalization regulations have been proposed in many aspects of economic and trade cooperation. , Established a higher standard of economic and trade rules.
Under the background that the global new crown pneumonia epidemic has not been effectively controlled, investment and trade protectionism are rising, and the world economic recovery is unstable, RCEP will undoubtedly enhance the closeness of economic and trade cooperation between countries in the region, increase the level of regional economic integration, and help the world economy recover Inject vitality and vitality, and become a new engine to promote the development of globalization.
For China, which is deeply advancing high-level opening-up, the formal entry into force of RCEP will bring new opportunities for my country to comprehensively improve the level and quality of opening-up and build a new open economic system.
First, the entry into force of RCEP will promote the balanced development of China's foreign trade.
After the RCEP takes effect, the number of final zero-tariff products in trade in goods will exceed 90%, and the degree of trade facilitation will be greatly improved.
In terms of service trade, countries in the region have made a higher level of openness commitments than the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. The open areas of service sectors have been greatly expanded, and trade barriers will be eliminated on a large scale, bringing opportunities for improvement in my country’s foreign trade development.
At present, ASEAN is China's largest trading partner. Together with Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and other member states, the total trade volume within the RCEP region accounts for about one-third of China's total trade volume.
The reduction of import and export tariffs and the improvement of trade liberalization and facilitation are conducive to the further expansion of my country's export scale.
At the same time, high-end products, technology, and raw materials and primary commodities from resource-based countries from developed countries in the region have formed a clear division of foreign trade products with my country, which will directly promote the development of my country’s imports: high-end imports can meet the needs of domestic upgrading Consumer demand and the transformational demand for high-quality industrial development can also provide the basis for my country's economic development through the import of bulk raw materials and primary products, so as to achieve a balanced development of imports and exports.
In addition, the high-level openness commitment to service trade in the region will promote the development of my country’s service trade, especially in R&D, consulting, law, construction, medical care, pensions, finance, transportation, etc. to form new growth points in service trade, and then promote my country The balanced development of trade in goods and services has formed an international dual brand of "Made in China" and "Service in China", helping my country to open up to the outside world at a high level.
Second, the effective RCEP will promote the development of China's two-way investment.
After the RCEP takes effect, the original 44 bilateral investment agreements in the region will be organically integrated, and the level of investment opening in countries will be higher than the original investment agreements, and measures such as comprehensive investment protection, investment promotion, investment access, and investment liberalization and facilitation will be implemented .
At the same time, the transparency of investment policies has been greatly improved, reducing the investment transaction costs of relevant countries, and will promote the deepening of investment cooperation in the region.
Under the RCEP framework, China has implemented a negative list of investment liberalization commitments in the five non-service sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and mining. It has also lowered the barriers to entry for foreign investment in the service industry and directly improved my country’s The market opening of RCEP member countries and the level of foreign investment access, combined with the current positive factors such as my country’s industrial upgrading and environmental protection standards, will expand the scale of investment in China by countries in the region and enhance the level of foreign investment in the industry.
Most of the major member states of RCEP are co-construction countries of the “Belt and Road”, and the ten ASEAN countries are key areas for the construction of the “Belt and Road”.
With the further deepening of investment liberalization and facilitation, it will help China to take advantage of its large manufacturing capacity, strong industrial supporting capabilities, high innovation activity, strong applicability of technical standards and low costs, and expand the scale of foreign investment to other RCEP countries. , Layout and stabilize the industrial chain and supply chain.
Third, the entry into force of RCEP will promote China's high-level institutional opening.
RCEP has established high-standard international rules in the field of economy and trade, especially in intellectual property protection, digital economy, e-commerce, government procurement, competition policy, and small and medium-sized enterprises, providing a direction for institutional innovation in my country's high-level opening up.
Building a new open institutional system is an important way for my country to open up to the outside world at a high level. Through the construction of a pilot free trade zone, my country has made significant progress in institutional reform and innovation.
RCEP is a high-level international agreement that my country currently participates in. It provides an international standard for my country’s institutional innovation. It is conducive to promoting institutional opening up, promoting reform through opening up, continuously improving the business environment, forming institutional innovation and reform dividends, and generating benefits to the international community. The siphon effect of high-quality resources has brought continuous impetus to high-level opening up and laid a solid foundation for my country to join the CPTPP and other regional economic cooperation organizations that cover higher standard economic and trade rules.
The international economic and trade rules determined by RCEP are formed by countries in the region through 31 rounds of formal negotiations and more than 400 repeated consultations after 8 years.
As an important promoting country, my country has made high-standard openness commitments on the premise of safeguarding its own economic security and national interests.
The high-level international economic and trade rules determined by RCEP reflect China's determination to continue to open up and promote globalization and the international confidence of a responsible power.
By actively promoting the formulation and improvement of RCEP international economic and trade cooperation rules, my country has accumulated experience and ability to formulate international rules.
The formal entry into force of RCEP will bring a good opportunity for my country to implement a high-level opening up, put forward a global proposition based on China, and expand its international influence in an all-round way.
After the RCEP formally takes effect, it is necessary to seize the new opportunities and fully implement the RCEP economic and trade rules to lay a solid foundation for opening up to the outside world with high-level and high-quality development.
Actively promote the implementation of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation measures, use digital technology to improve customs clearance efficiency, increase economic and trade policy coordination and information sharing with other RCEP member states, deepen economic and trade cooperation, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win; make full use of RCEP rules to promote Enterprises "go global" and protect their own rights and interests in foreign investment; comprehensively review existing laws, regulations and policies, revise clauses that do not conform to RCEP rules, formulate a sound legal system and standard system, continue to innovate systems and mechanisms, and improve the level of service refinement , Build an institutionalized, service-oriented and market-oriented business environment; continue to expand market opening in the service sector, effectively reduce barriers, introduce and implement a nationwide negative list management system for cross-border service trade, and promote the development of service trade and expand services The scale of foreign investment in the industry; improve the cross-border e-commerce transaction system and service platform functions, promote paperless trade, electronic signature and certification, the establishment and application of standardized systems; implement the principle of competition neutrality, actively implement the "Foreign Investment Law", and prohibit government procurement Discriminate and differentiate treatment, protect the rights and interests of small and medium-sized enterprises, strengthen the transparency of market operation and supervision; build and improve the institutional and normative system that can fully cover the complete chain of intellectual property creation, use, protection, management and service, and build a diversified intellectual property dispute resolution mechanism. Form an intellectual property protection system that integrates review authorization, judicial protection, administrative law enforcement, mediation and arbitration, and industry self-discipline.
(Author: Lan Qingxin and Wang Qiang, Special Researcher of Beijing Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era)