Our reporter Zhu Lin
The "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership" (RCEP) came into effect a few days ago. The official launch of the world's largest free trade zone will provide more flexible industrial layout for many multinational companies inside and outside the region, and establish a more refined and complete industrial chain division of labor. The system, reducing the production cost of final products brings tangible benefits, and also opens up a broad space for in-depth cooperation between enterprises and the development of economic and trade integration.
According to a report by KPMG, Thailand's trade with other RCEP members accounts for more than half of the country's total trade. electronic products, etc.
"With the implementation of RCEP, it will further promote deeper economic integration between members including China and Thailand in the next few years." Xu Xinxiong, CEO of Thailand's Tencel Group, said that now, China-Thailand economic and trade exchanges have been very close, and the scale of investment has continued to grow. expand.
As the world's largest free trade agreement involving the largest population and the largest economic and trade scale, the launch of RCEP will undoubtedly inject greater impetus into the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Thailand, and bring more opportunities for Sino-Thai business cooperation.
"We also look forward to seeing RCEP play an active role in mitigating the impact of the epidemic on the regional economy, and creating favorable conditions for the recovery of enterprises in the post-epidemic era," Xu Xinxiong said.
Rio Tinto Group, one of the world's largest mining companies, has more than 90% of its products involved in cross-border trade.
According to the group, more than 75% of Rio Tinto's global sales revenue in 2020 will come from RCEP members, of which 58% will come from China.
In 2021, relying on the mixing, processing and international transshipment capabilities of Chinese ports, Rio Tinto Group will successfully sell new Rio Tinto iron ore blending products from China to Southeast Asia and South Korea, providing more options for the supply chain in the Asian market.
Rio Tinto Group said that RCEP has also introduced tariff reduction and exemption policies for the trade of other Rio Tinto resource products such as titanium dioxide and boric acid in the region, which will attract the industry to set up logistics and transshipment hubs in the RCEP region.
In the long run, the effective of RCEP will bring multiple benefits to reducing intra-regional trade barriers, improving trade efficiency, maintaining supply chain stability, and promoting regional cooperation.
The effective implementation of RCEP not only brings opportunities for large multinational companies, but also means a "breakthrough" for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially cross-border e-commerce.
Previously, cross-border e-commerce goods exported overseas faced greater compliance risks.
There are differences in trade standards between countries, including various rules of origin, market access policies, and investment policies.
With the implementation of unified rules such as rules of origin, customs procedures, inspection and quarantine, and technical standards, intra-regional trade rules have gradually become standardized and unified, and the integration of trade standards in the intra-regional market has greatly weakened trade barriers.
In response to this, Deloitte recently released the "Asia-Pacific Digital Trade Empowered by Technology" report that RCEP has taken five major steps from eliminating tariff barriers, establishing flexible rules of origin, promoting e-commerce, improving trade facilitation, and focusing on SMEs and technical cooperation. to promote regional digital trade.
The report predicts that with technology dividends superimposed on policy dividends, Asia's "micro multinational enterprises" will usher in a critical leap in the next three years.