Dubbed the biggest trade deal in the world, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP), is eyed to create opportunities for economic and trade development in participant countries, which make up some 30% of the global GDP.
In a hybrid virtual/in-person seminar called “The RCEP takes effect: Regional economic integration and post-pandemic economic recovery and growth”, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, Wang Yiming, said that the RCEP would spur global economic integration and that it would bolster regional economic and trade cooperation, advance cooperation among industrial and supply chains, and bring life back in the service trade sector.
The deal was inked in 2020 by 15 Asia-Pacific nations, 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, and five of their trading partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. For six ASEAN states, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, the agreement took effect at the beginning of the year. South Korea followed on Feb. 1.
“China is building a new ‘dual circulation’ economic development pattern, which takes the domestic market as the mainstay while domestic and foreign markets complement each other to further expand the domestic market, consumption and imports,” Wang said, backing his statement with a McKinsey Global Institute report. “ That will create conditions for participating countries to expand their exports to China and promote regional economic and trade cooperation.”
China Public Diplomacy Association president, Wu Hailong, meanwhile cautioned participant countries to uphold regional cooperation, boost regional trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation, and promote digital economy development, to further the shift to greener economies and spur exchanges in the region.
According to Wu, the RCEP deal would open more doors for China, particularly in the Hainan province. Due to its strategic geographical advantages, free trade port policies and business environment, Hainan has only to gain from the RCEP.
Government data showed China’s imports and exports reached $6 trillion last year. In renminbi, total foreign trade rose by 21.4% since the previous year. During the pandemic, ASEAN had become China’s dominant business partner – bilateral trade among the parties jumped by 19.7% last year.
With an eye on the road ahead, Director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, Bert Hofman, believed that the RCEP would be instrumental in strengthening the supply chain, handling climate change and ironing out trade disputes among participant countries.
