The regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) entered into force on January 1. The launch of this free trade agreement with the largest population and the greatest development potential in the world will unite a unified super large-scale market, effectively stimulate the growth of international trade and investment, and promote the regional and even global economic recovery after the epidemic.
In the past 2021, China and ASEAN ushered in the 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations. That year, China ASEAN announced the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership. Since the establishment of bilateral relations, the volume of bilateral trade has expanded 85 times. Observers believe that the entry into force of the RCEP agreement will enable the China ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership, help both sides build a closer community of common destiny, and inject new momentum into regional and world peace, stability, prosperity and development.
highlighting multilateralism and free trade
RCEP, led by ASEAN, has different levels of economic development, diverse cultural backgrounds and political systems. There are both leading developed countries and underdeveloped countries in the world, which is rare in the practice of the global free trade area.
ASEAN itself has strong diversity and a more balanced, pragmatic and inclusive position. It has credibility and ability to take into account the interests of developing and developed members, so that as many members as possible can get on board and share results, rather than demanding high standards and narrowing the “circle of friends”. Such opportunities are valuable to developing countries.
Zheng Yongnian, President of the Institute of higher studies in global and contemporary China of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), pointed out that the focus of the world economy will be in Asia in the coming decades. Before the signing of RCEP, there was a lack of institutionalized constraints on trade in the Asia Pacific region. RCEP is the first step in the institutionalization of economic and trade in the Asia Pacific region, which is of great significance. He believes that multilateralism is more conducive to the integration of regional economy and trade. RCEP is the result of consensus and a new type of multilateralism.
As the first non ASEAN member state to formally complete the RCEP approval process, China has always been firmly determined to safeguard the multilateral trading system and promote the process of regional economic integration.
Deng Xijun, Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, said that at a difficult time in the world, the signing and timely entry into force of RCEP marked a major victory for multilateralism and free trade, and also dealt a heavy blow to the fallacies of “anti globalization” and “decoupling”. The success of RCEP sends a strong signal: the recovery in the post epidemic era must rely on multilateralism and expanded opening-up. Closed exclusion and deliberate “decoupling” will only be counterproductive.
Ge Hongliang, vice president of ASEAN College of Guangxi University for nationalities, who holds the same view, also said that the smooth implementation of RCEP in the post epidemic era shows that China and ASEAN have jointly adhered to the multilateralism long defended by both sides.
closer economic and trade ties between China and ASEAN
The 15 member states within the RCEP framework have unprecedented opportunities. RCEP takes effect, and more than 90% of the goods trade between approved members will eventually achieve zero tariff, which is conducive to different member countries to attract labor division links in line with their own technology and labor quality, so as to provide an opportunity for the re layout of cross regional supply chains.
ASEAN Secretary General Lin Yuhui said that in ASEAN and China, SMEs account for more than 90%. RCEP will help reduce non-tariff barriers and provide more opportunities for SMEs to participate in regional and global value chains. Meanwhile, RCEP is committed to promoting and protecting investment, promoting investment facilitation and ensuring equal market access, which will bring more opportunities for bilateral investment cooperation.
The industrial chains of China and ASEAN are highly complementary and the supply chain is closely connected. Based on the role of RCEP, the factor flow, production division and market accommodation between China and ASEAN will be further improved, the potential of bilateral economic and trade cooperation will be fully released, and finally the China ASEAN trade in goods will reach a new high, and the service trade and investment of both sides will be promoted to achieve a leap.
Lei Xiaohua, deputy director of Southeast Asia Research Institute of Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, said that with the help of R & D technology of Japan and South Korea, manufacturing in China, assembly of ASEAN and a large market in the region, a new supply chain and industrial chain can be built. The entry into force of RCEP will make the economic and trade ties between China and ASEAN closer, which is a new change to the world economic pattern.
In the view of Xu Liping, researcher of the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Southeast Asia Research Center, China is moving towards a stage of high-quality economic development. Strong domestic demand potential makes China an indispensable partner of ASEAN countries. With the implementation of RCEP, more products from ASEAN countries will enter the Chinese market, which will undoubtedly strengthen the economic and trade relations between China and ASEAN.
open up a new chapter on regional integration and common prosperity
China and ASEAN have established dialogue relations for 30 years, and the scale of trade has reached more than 600 billion US dollars. In the context of the global epidemic, ASEAN has surpassed the EU and historically become China’s largest trading partner. The upgrading of China ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has laid a solid foundation for the signing and implementation of RCEP.
Deng Xijun believes that RCEP will gradually bridge the development gap among members, effectively promote regional coordinated and balanced development, and promote the establishment of a new pattern of open regional economic integration by increasing economic and technical assistance to developing economies and least developed economies in ASEAN.
Benefiting from the deepening of bilateral relations and increasing mutual trust, the warming of economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN will be a long-term trend. Zhang Jianping, director of the regional economic research center of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce of China, judged that in the future, China and ASEAN will take the China ASEAN Free Trade Area as the core and infrastructure interconnection as the starting point, and play the role of two core markets in the new unified big market framework of RCEP.
He said that RCEP will enable ASEAN and China to move towards integrated development.
(China News Network)
