Author: Zhang Yugui

　　"Guangming Daily" (January 03, 2022 Edition 04)

　　【Special attention】

　　Due to the multi-dimensional and repeated shocks brought about by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the world economy is still facing huge uncertainties.

The "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP), which came into effect a few days ago, undoubtedly injected a strong warm current into the world economy that is still in a turbulent period of recovery.

This signifies that the world's largest free trade zone, composed of 15 member states accounting for nearly 30% of the world’s population and economy, is promoting regional and global economic integration with pragmatic attitudes and solid actions.

　　RCEP came into effect, establishing a new paradigm for the symbiosis of regional economic cooperation and prosperity.

RCEP was first planned and proposed by ASEAN, inviting China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India to participate ("10+6"), aiming to reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers to finally establish free trade in a unified market of 16 countries agreement.

Because it covers the largest population and the composition of the member states, it is often difficult to unify the demands of the parties. Therefore, the negotiation is not smooth, and even some countries withdraw halfway.

However, under the joint efforts of ASEAN, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, the relevant parties finally passed 31 rounds of formal negotiations and more than 400 repeated consultations, and formally signed the global scale to date on November 15, 2020. The largest free trade agreement.

　　RCEP will bring tangible benefits to member states, and it reflects the current international economic and trade rules and the development direction of high-level openness. It is also the basis for a cooperative game between Asia-Pacific countries with significant differences in economic development levels and very different institutional systems. To overcome the “composite fallacy”, we are committed to promoting trade and investment facilitation, promoting the free circulation of commodities and capital, and consolidating and developing high-level institutional arrangements established by the multilateral trading system.

From the perspective of the text of the agreement, it includes 20 chapters, preamble and 4 Attachment to the Market Access Commitment Form.

The core principles are highly compatible with the purposes and goals of the World Trade Organization.

For example, the certificate of origin called "paper gold", with the effective of RCEP, will immediately become an important certificate for member states to enjoy preferential treatment such as tariff reduction or exemption.

This fully reflects that the world's most important export force, as a new supplier of public products in the free trade field, has undertaken the important task of promoting global economic development and trade and investment liberalization.

　　The entry into force of RCEP has enhanced the stability and resilience of the global industrial chain supply chain.

In the era of highly integrated global economy and trade, maintaining the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain is an important prerequisite for ensuring the normal production, trade and life of all countries.

Before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the division of labor and cooperation in the global industrial chain and the formation of the supply chain center had its inherent economic logic. It not only had the cyclical and phased characteristics of global industrial production and industrial pattern changes, but also had the expected determination. The stability characteristics.

However, as a major external variable, the epidemic has caused a huge impact on the global industrial chain supply chain. In addition, some countries focus on the security and stability of their own industrial chain supply chains and implement national egoistic industrial and trade policies, resulting in partial parts of the global industrial chain. Disruption, the supply chain has become unprecedentedly fragile, intensifying the turbulence of the global economy and affecting the recovery process.

　　After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China, as the hub of the global industrial chain supply chain, not only ensures that the global anti-epidemic material supply chain is not disconnected, but also works with Japan, South Korea, ASEAN and other countries to restore economic normality and promote East Asia, Southeast Asia and the world. The industrial chain is connected and the supply chain is smooth.

China has also joined hands with relevant parties to promote RCEP negotiations to make significant progress on important issues such as trade in goods, service trade, and investment, and finally sign the agreement, reflecting the responsibilities of RCEP member states.

　　After the RCEP takes effect, China and Japan, as the world’s second and third largest economies, will form a closer industrial division and cooperation relationship with other member states in the region based on investment and trade agreements, and will focus on the new round of the global industrial chain. The structure obtains the behavioral space on the collective level.

According to the accumulation rules in the RCEP key origin accumulation rules, when determining the origin qualification of the product, the member states regard the originating materials of other parties to the free trade agreement used in the production of the product as the origin of the contracting party where the product is produced. Materials, in fact, lower the threshold for products to obtain the qualification of origin, greatly mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of RCEP member countries' small and medium-sized enterprises to use the cumulative rules of origin, and significantly promote the optimal allocation of regional production resources and the division of labor and cooperation within products. In particular, the development of production and trade of intermediate products is conducive to enhancing the stability and resilience of the supply chain of the industrial chain.

　　The entry into force of RCEP provides guarantee for saving transaction costs of regional market entities.

Like other high-level investment and trade agreements, RCEP is an international agreement based and aimed at zero tariffs.

Tariff reduction among RCEP member countries is based on the commitment to "immediately reduce tariffs to zero tariffs within 10 years", and more than 90% of the goods trade between members will eventually achieve zero tariffs.

At present, ASEAN has surpassed the EU to become my country's largest trading partner. The total bilateral trade in the first 11 months of 2021 has reached 5.11 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.4% of my country's total foreign trade.

Japan is my country's fourth largest trading partner. The total bilateral trade value in the first 11 months of 2021 accounts for 6.2% of my country's total foreign trade.

According to the China-Japan tariff reduction arrangement, with the effective of RCEP, China’s average tariff on Japanese goods will eventually drop from the current 9.76% to 0.04%, and Japan’s average tariff on Chinese goods will eventually be reduced from the current 7.47% to close to zero. .

Under the framework of the RCEP agreement, China will exempt about 86% of Japanese products from import tariffs in stages, and Japan will exempt 85.6% of Chinese products from import tariffs.

Obviously, the entry into force of the agreement will provide a solid guarantee for saving transaction costs between market entities in the region.

　　As for the facilitation arrangements for trade in goods, the parties to RCEP have made high-level commitments on customs procedures, inspection and quarantine, and technical standards. In particular, they promise to release the goods within 48 hours after their arrival as far as possible. Release within 6 hours.

From the perspective of saving transaction costs and promoting trade development, the above-mentioned unified trade regulations and arrangements will greatly improve the efficiency of logistics customs clearance, make regional trade more convenient and transparent, and more fair and predictable, thereby significantly boosting member states in the region Of mutual exports.

As for the opening and facilitation of trade in services, the contracting parties have also made firm commitments to implement negative list management on the opening up of trade in services 5 years after the agreement comes into effect (January 1, 2027).

　　The entry into force of RCEP also laid the foundation stone for the world economy to absorb China's growth dividend.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has not only strived to ensure that the global industrial chain and supply chain is not disconnected, but also provided the most stable export market and growth expectations for the economies that have been hit by the epidemic.

In the first three quarters of 2021, China's contribution to global import growth was as high as 14.1%.

The entry into force of RCEP will not only help Chinese export companies to explore the export markets of the member states in the zone and tap their export potential, but also help my country's main trading partners to undertake the dividends of China's economic development based on high-level trade agreements and openness commitments.

The release of this batch of dividends will follow the substantial relaxation of China’s market access, the continuous improvement of the investment environment, and the high-level opening of the financial service industry to the outside world. Institutional opening is the driving force, and more opportunities in China are guaranteed by the stability and resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain.

　　(Author: Zhang Yugui, Dean of the School of International Finance and Trade, Shanghai International Studies University)