Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement between
the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with
which ASEAN has existing FTAs.
RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
Presence in the World
RCEP includes more than 3 billion people, has a combined GDP of about $17 trillion,
and accounts for about 40 percent of world trade.
Guiding Principles and Objectives for Negotiation At the launch of negotiations on Tuesday,
November 20, 2012, the leaders of each relevant country endorsed the "Guiding Principles and
Objectives for Negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership."
The key points of this document are as follows.
Scope of negotiations RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services,
investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute
settlement and other issues.
The agreement will encompass trade in goods and services, economic and technical issues,
intellectual property and investments, and dispute settlement mechanisms.
As expected, ASEAN will be in the ‘driver’s seat’ of this multilateral trade arrangement,
and has been repeatedly endorsed by India.
The joint statement issued at the end of the first round of negotiations also reiterated
‘ASEAN Centrality’ in the emerging regional economic architecture.
Commitment levels The RCEP will have broader and deeper engagement
with significant improvements over the existing ASEAN+1 FTAs, while recognizing the individual
and diverse circumstances of the participating countries.
Negotiations for trade in goods Negotiations should aim to achieve the high
level of tariff liberalization, through building upon the existing liberalization levels between
participating countries.
Negotiations for trade in services The RCEP will be comprehensive, of high-quality
and consistent with WTO rules and all service sectors will be subject to negotiations.
Negotiations for investment Negotiations will cover the four pillars of
promotion, protection, facilitation and liberalization.
Negotiation schedule Negotiations will commence in early 2013 and
aim to complete by end-2015.
Participating countries Participants will be ASEAN members and FTA
Partners.
After the completion of the negotiations, countries other than the 16 states may join.
History & Time-line 14–19 November 2011
During the 19th ASEAN Summit in November 2011, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
was introduced.
25 August - 1 September 2012 During the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting
and Related Meetings in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Economic ministers from the 10 ASEAN countries
and six parters agreed to declare by the end of 2012 the start of negotiation among the
16 nations on a free trade agreement, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership,
or RCEP. 18–20 November 2012
Leaders at the 21st ASEAN Summit in November 2012 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia endorsed the
framework of RCEP and announced the launch of their negotiations.
9–13 May 2013 Officials of the 16 governments participating
in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – the 10 ASEAN Member States and its Free
Trade Agreement Partners – met in Brunei Darussalam to start detailed negotiations
aimed at concluding RCEP by the end of 2015.
Consistent with the RCEP Leaders’ Joint Declaration on the Launch of Negotiations
for the RCEP of 20 November 2012 and the Guiding Principles and Objectives for Negotiating
the RCEP endorsed by RCEP Ministers on 30 August 2012, the RCEP negotiations will aim
to: achieve a modern, comprehensive, high-quality
and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement establishing an open trade and investment
environment in the region to facilitate the expansion of regional trade and investment
and contribute to global economic growth and development; and
boost economic growth and equitable economic development, advance economic cooperation
and broaden and deepen integration in the region through the RCEP, which will build
upon our existing economic linkages. 23–27 September 2013
The second round of RCEP negotiations were going well during 23–27 September 2013 in
Australia.
Delegations primarily focused on trade in goods, trade in services and investment.
They also engaged on economic and technical cooperation, competition, intellectual property,
dispute settlement and other issues, in line with the RCEP Guiding Principles.
20–24 January 2014 At the third round of the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership Negotiations, the 16 participating countries pursued an intensive
exchange of views to advance the negotiations in order to meet the target of concluding
the negotiations by the end of 2015.
Participating countries continued technical work on trade in goods, trade in services,
and investment: On Trade in goods, participating countries
conducted a constructive discussion on the modalities for the tariff negotiations, non-tariff
measures, Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures, Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures as well as on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation and Rules
of Origin.
On Trade in services, participating countries discussed the structure and elements of the
RCEP Services Chapter, areas of market access interests and a number of specific issues
at good length.
On Investment, participating countries exchanged views on investment modalities and deliberated
further on the elements for the RCEP Investment Chapter.
In order to advance negotiations on the broad range of issues, four working groups were
established, namely on; Intellectual Property
Competition Economic and Technical Cooperation
Dispute Settlement Some delegations made presentations on other
issues that are of particular interest to some RCEP participating countries.
Two Seminars were held at the sidelines of negotiations round.
Malaysia and Japan organized a Seminar on Intellectual Property, discussing a broad
range of issues in IP and how IP may support trade and investment further.
Australia organized a seminar on the cross cutting areas of Services and Investment.
The participating countries had a good discussion on the issues.
April 2014 Round 4 The 4th round of RCEP negotiations
took place in Nanning, China 31 March – 4 April 2014.
The participating countries continued intensive discussion on a range of issues to advance
the negotiations.
Participating countries engaged on the development of trade in goods texts, intensified consideration
of modalities to be used for tariff negotiations and continued discussions on non-tariff measures,
Standards, Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment Procedures, Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures as well as on Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation and Rules of Origin.
On Trade in services, participating countries deliberated on the elements of text, the scope
of provisions, the approach to scheduling market access commitments, market access commitments,
and a number of other specific issues.
On Investment, participating countries engaged in discussions on text, and an in-depth discussion
on the elements including investment modalities.
At the Nanning meeting, the new working groups on Intellectual Property, Competition, and
Economic and Technical Cooperation commenced their work.
Other issues of particular interest to a number of RCEP participating countries were discussed.
Experts met to discuss Dispute Settlement and broader legal and institutional issues.
A formal working group will be established to continue these discussions at the next
meeting.
The 5th RCEP negotiation round will be held on 23-27 June 2014 in Singapore.
1-5 December 2014 6th RCEP Trade Negotiation Committee(TNC)
and related meetings, New Delhi, India Relationship with other frameworks
East Asia Free Trade Agreement & Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia
The RCEP takes into account the East Asia Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive
Economic Partnership in East Asia initiatives, with the difference that the RCEP is not working
on a pre-determined membership.
Instead, it is based on open accession which enables participation of any of the ASEAN
FTA partners at the outset or later when they are ready to join.
The arrangement is also open to any other external economic partners, such as nations
in Central Asia and remaining nations in South Asia and Oceania.
Trans Pacific Partnership Along with the Trans Pacific Partnership,
the RCEP is a possible pathway to a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific, and a contribution
to building momentum for global trade reform.Both the RCEP and TPP are ambitious FTAs and will
involve complex negotiations as it involves multiple parties and sectors.
The TPP and RCEP as mutually-reinforcing parallel tracks for regional integration.
Countries involved
The arrangement is also open to any other external economic partners, such as nations
in Central Asia and remaining nations in South Asia and Oceania.
The RCEP 16 Countries the 10 members of ASEAN
Indonesia Malaysia
Philippines Singapore
Thailand Brunei
Vietnam Laos
Burma Cambodia
plus the three additional members of ASEAN Plus Three
China Japan
South Korea
plus India
Australia New Zealand
Basic Indicators of The RCEP 16 Countries
See also
CEPEA East Asian Community
East Asia Summit SAFTA
ASEAN+3 EPA
FTA FTAAP
TPP
External links Facebook Group : RCEP Promotion Group - An
Open and Universal Group to Support and Promote RCEP https:www.facebook.comRCEPPG/
References