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Experts: RCEP to benefit regional integration and global economy

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement is set to accelerate the regional economic integration, inject more growth impetus to the world’s economic recovery and shore up multilateralism and free trade, experts said on Sunday.

The experts were speaking at the RCEP Media & Think Tank Roundtable Forum held both online and offline under the theme of “the RCEP comes into effect: new prospects for regional cooperation and development”.

The forum was jointly organized by the Publicity Department of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, China Daily, the Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development, and the Hainan Institute for Free Trade Ports Studies.

The agreement, which came into effect on Jan 1 and covers one-third of the global population and domestic gross product, will add more resilience to regional industrial and supply chains, create a more fair and transparent regional business climate, and promote the building of common human community with a shared future, experts said.

While addressing the opening ceremony of the event, Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said the organizers hope the forum could provide an international platform for sharing experiences and insights and crystalizing wisdom for deepening cooperation and achieving win-win situation through opening-up practices.

“The agreement’s official entry means the free trade area with the largest population, economic and trade size and development potential in the world has officially formed,” Zhou said.

“It is given that a unified regional market will unleash huge trade growth potential in the region, which will vigorously promote regional economic integration for higher quality and at a deeper level and strengthen the presence of Asia-Pacific in the global economic and trade arena.”

The trade pact’s implementation is a testimony that true multilateralism and free trade is the trend of history while also indicating a future of mutually beneficial cooperation with opening-up practices and win-win outcomes.

“It is very encouraging that the coming into effect of the RCEP agreement has been widely seen as a major victory of multilateralism and free trade. Many member states have said the trade pact signals their common commitment to opening up and interconnecting supply chains and promoting deeper and closer relations based on mutual reliance, to advocate for the importance of free trade,” Zhou said.

“Removing wall-like barriers instead of building more is the trend of history, and it is in line with the interests of people in the world to firmly support a multilateral trading system,” he added.

Signed by 15 Asia-Pacific countries, including all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in November 2020, the RCEP agreement came into effect in 10 members that include six ASEAN states, China, Japan and New Zealand at the start of the year, to be followed by the implementation in South Korea on Feb 1.

With provisions on liberalization and facilitation in both goods and services trade and investment, experts said the pact’s boost to growth in the region and free trade in the world is all-round.

Chi Fulin, president of China Institute for Reform and Development, spoke highly of the RCEP agreement’s openness, inclusiveness, and step-by-step approach.

The agreement welcomes any economy to join in, strikes a balance among interests of countries with different levels of development, and pragmatically promotes opening-up and cooperation among member states, according to Chi, who is also president of the Hainan Institute for Free Trade Port Studies.

“The entry into force of the RCEP agreement will not only inject new impetus for regional economic integration, but will also make more contribution to the progressing of global free trade,” Chi said, adding the full play of RCEP policies will help build secured and stable industrial and supply chains.

Tariffs on around 90 percent of goods traded in the region will be eventually eliminated, to significantly reduce costs of trade and prices of products in the region. The cumulative rules of origin, which allow for products to have just 40 percent of their value added within the region to enjoy tariff reduction or elimination, will encourage enterprises to source from the region, to promote the formation of closer, more stable, and more competitive regional industrial cooperation system, said Chi. Rules of origin in a free trade area determine if a product originates from a member, so that related provisions can be applied.

The agreement’s provisions on services trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, will create a stable, open, and transparent investment environment for all investors both, he said.

He suggested member states strengthen efforts to accelerate alignment of market regulation and Customs information share and recognition to form a united regional market, and advance the construction of common markets in key areas such as agricultural products, services, and digital economy.

Wu Hailong, president of the China Public Diplomacy Association, said the implementation of the agreement is another milestone for free trade in the region after overcoming disruptions from protectionism.

Speeding up flows of products and other production factors in the region, the entry into effect of the free trade agreement will unleash trade growth potentials to propel regional economic recovery and further growth, he said, urging the member states to improve logistics and customs clearance efficiency, to create more favorable conditions for intra-regional investment and form a closer and more resilient regional industrial and supply chains.

He also suggested media and think tanks to play a more positive role in facilitating regional communication and the implementation of the pact.

Wang Yiming, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the entry of the RCEP agreement was a major event for promoting economic globalization and regional economic integration, amid changes unseen in a century and the global pandemic that have led to interconnected risks, including disrupted global industrial and supply chains, surges in commodity prices, and shortage of energy supplies.

The agreement will deepen regional economic and trade cooperation, increase regional industrial and supply chain resilience, and promote development of services trade, according to him.

Ong Tee Keat, president of the Center for New Inclusive Asia in Malaysia, who is the country’s former minister of transport, said the RCEP agreement is likely to send important messages on global free trade and open regionalism amid the ongoing global pandemic.

The agreement was born in the middle of rising protectionism, supply chain disruption, a great deal of uncertainty of the pandemic spreading, and increasingly intensifying US-China trade row, he said, adding the regional free trade deal can serve as a building block for the multilateralism in the years to come.

Bert Hofman, director of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, said the RCEP’s coming into force was another milestone in global and regional integration.

“It is important for mankind to work together and to benefit from globalization and to benefit from high standards in trade,” he said.

A recent study of the Asian Development Bank suggested the agreement will increase members’ income by more than half a percent by 2030, include adding some $245 billion in annual income and 2.8 million jobs in regional employment, he said.

Attracting participants from home and abroad, the forum featured sessions respectively on RCEP and regional economic integration, and plans and actions of media and think tank cooperation for RCEP regional people-to-people exchange.

Participants also included Ahn Choong-yong, distinguished professor of the Graduate School of International Studies at Chung-Ang University in South Korea, Su Ge, former president of the China Institute of International Studies, who is also former co-chair of Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and chairman of PECC-China, Pana Janviroj, executive director of Asia News Network, Zhang Yunling, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a professor of Shandong University, and Huo Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.
Source: China Daily

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