According to Xinhua news Agency, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was officially signed on November 15 during the East Asia Cooperation Leaders’ meetings, marking the birth of the world’s largest free trade area with the largest population, the most diverse membership and the greatest potential for development.

Since the reform and opening up more than 40 years ago, the textile industry has maintained a steady and healthy development, playing a stabilizing role in various economic fluctuations, and its pillar industry has never been shaken.With the signing of RCEP, textile printing and dyeing industry will also usher in unprecedented policy benefits.What are the specific content, please see the following report!
According to CCTV News, the fourth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) leaders’ meeting was held in a video format today (November 15) morning.

15 leaders of China, said today we witness regional comprehensive economic partnership agreements (RCEP) signed, as members of the largest population in the world to participate in, the most diverse structure, development potential is the largest free trade area, it is not just a regional cooperation in east Asia landmark achievements, extremely, the victory of multilateralism and free trade will add something new to promote regional development and prosperity of the kinetic energy, new power achieve restorative growth for the world economy.

Premier Li: The RCEP has been signed

It is a triumph of multilateralism and free trade

Premier li keqiang on November 15th in the morning to attend the fourth “regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement” (RCEP) leaders’ meeting, said 15 leaders today we witness regional comprehensive economic partnership agreements (RCEP) signed, as members of the largest population in the world to participate in, the most diverse structure, development potential is the largest free trade area, it is not just a regional cooperation in east Asia landmark achievements, extremely, the victory of multilateralism and free trade will add something new to promote regional development and prosperity of the kinetic energy, new power achieve restorative growth for the world economy.

Li pointed out that under the current international situation, the signing of the RCEP after eight years of negotiations has given people light and hope in the haze. It shows that multilateralism and free trade are the main path and still represent the right direction for the world economy and mankind.Let people choose solidarity and cooperation over conflict and confrontation in the face of challenges, and let them help each other and help each other in times of difficulty instead of beggar-thy-neighbor policies and watching fire from afar. Let us show the world that opening up and cooperation is the only way to achieve win-win outcomes for all countries.The road ahead will never be smooth. As long as we remain firm in our confidence and work together, we will be able to usher in an even brighter future for East Asia and mankind as a whole.

Finance Ministry: China and Japan reach agreement for the first time

Bilateral tariff concession arrangement

On November 15, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance, the RCEP agreement on trade liberalization in goods has yielded fruitful results.The tariff reduction among member countries is mainly based on the commitment to zero tariff immediately and zero tariff within 10 years. The FTA is expected to achieve significant progress in its phased construction in a relatively short period of time.China and Japan have reached a bilateral tariff reduction arrangement for the first time, marking a historic breakthrough.The agreement is conducive to promoting a high level of trade liberalization within the region.

The successful signing of the RCEP is of great importance to enhancing countries’ post-epidemic economic recovery and promoting long-term prosperity and development.Further acceleration of trade liberalization will bring greater impetus to regional economic and trade prosperity.The preferential benefits of the agreement will directly benefit consumers and industrial enterprises, and will play an important role in enriching choices in the consumer market and reducing trade costs for enterprises.

The Ministry of Finance has earnestly implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, actively participated in and promoted the RCEP agreement, and carried out a lot of detailed work on tariff reduction for trade in goods.The next step, the Ministry of Finance will actively do the agreement tariff reduction work.

After eight years of “long-distance Running”

The pact, initiated by the 10 ASEAN countries and involving six dialogue partners — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India — aims to create a 16-nation free trade agreement with a single market by cutting tariff and non-tariff barriers.

The negotiations, formally launched in November 2012, cover a dozen areas including small and medium-sized enterprises, investment, economic and technological cooperation, and trade in goods and services.

In the past seven years, China has had three leaders’ meetings, 19 ministerial meetings and 28 rounds of formal negotiations.

On November 4, 2019, the third leaders’ meeting, the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement in a joint statement, announced the end of the 15 member states full text talks and virtually all market access negotiations, will start the legal text audit work, India for “has the important problem has not been resolved” temporarily not to join the agreement.

The total GDP is over $25 trillion

It covers 30% of the world’s population

Zhang Jianping, director of the Regional Economic Research Center of the Academy of The Ministry of Commerce, said the REGIONAL Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is characterized by its large size and strong inclusiveness.

As of 2018, the agreement’s 15 members will cover about 2.3 billion people, or 30 percent of the world’s population.With a combined GDP of more than $25 trillion, the region would be the world’s largest free trade area.

The REGIONAL Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a new type of FREE trade agreement that is more inclusive than other free trade agreements in operation around the world.The AGREEMENT covers not only trade in goods, dispute settlement, trade in services and investment, but also new issues such as intellectual property rights, digital trade, finance and telecommunications.
Over 90% of goods may be included in the zero-tariff range

It is understood that the RCEP negotiation builds on the previous “10+3″ cooperation and further expands its scope to “10+5″.China has already established a free trade area with the ten ASEAN countries, and the free trade area has covered over 90 percent of tax items on both sides with zero tariff.

Zhu Yin, associate professor of the Department of Public Administration at the School of International Relations, said that RCEP negotiations will undoubtedly take more steps to reduce tariff barriers, and that 95 percent or even more products will be included in the zero-tariff range in the future.There will also be more market space.The expansion of the membership from 13 to 15 is a major policy boost for foreign trade enterprises.

Statistics show that in the first three quarters of this year, trade volume between China and ASEAN reached us $481.81 billion, up 5% year on year. Asean has historically become China’s largest trading partner, and China’s investment in ASEAN has increased 76.6% year on year.

In addition, the agreement also contributes to the construction of supply chains and value chains in the region.Vice minister of commerce and international trade negotiations deputy representatives Wang Shouwen pointed out that, in the region to form a unified free trade zone, helps to form local area according to the comparative advantage, supply chain and value chain in the region of the commodity flow, technology flow, service flow, capital flow, including personnel across borders can have very big advantage, forming the trade creation effect.

Take the clothing industry.If Vietnam exports its garments to China now, it will have to pay tariffs, and if it joins the FTA, the regional value chain will come into play.Import wool from Australia, New Zealand, China signed a free-trade agreement because, so the future may be duty-free imports of wool, imports in China after woven fabrics, the fabric may be exported to Vietnam, Vietnam again after use this cloth clothing exports to South Korea, Japan, China and other countries, these might be duty-free, thus promotes the development of the local textile and garment industry, solve the employment, on exports is also very good.

In fact, all enterprises in the region can participate in the accumulation of the value of the place of origin, which is of great benefit to the promotion of mutual trade and investment within the region.
Therefore, if more than 90% of the RCEP products are gradually exempted from tariffs after the RCEP signing, it will greatly boost the economic vitality of more than a dozen members, including China.
Experts: Creating more jobs

We will significantly improve the well-being of our citizens

“With the signing of the RCEP, a free trade area with the largest population coverage, the largest economic and trade scale and the greatest development potential in the world has been formally born.”In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Su Ge, co-chair of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and former President of The China Institute of International Studies, pointed out that in the post-coVID-19 era, the RCEP will greatly enhance the level of regional economic cooperation and inject impetus into the economic recovery in the Asia-Pacific region.

“At a time when the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, the Asia-Pacific region plays an important role in global economic development.”In the global economic landscape of North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the cooperation between China and ASEAN has the potential to make this trading circle an important hub for global trade and investment.”"Said Sugar.
Mr Suger points out that the regional trading bloc trails only slightly behind the EU as a share of global trade.As the Asia-Pacific economy maintains a steady growth momentum, this FREE trade area will become a new bright spot for global economic growth in the wake of the epidemic.

While some argue that the standards are not high enough compared to the CPTPP, The comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr Sugar points out that RCEP also has significant advantages.”It covers a wide range of topics, including not only the elimination of internal trade barriers and the creation and improvement of the investment environment, but also measures conducive to the expansion of trade in services, as well as strengthening intellectual property protection.”

He stressed that the signing of the RCEP will send a very important signal that, despite the triple impact of trade protectionism, unilateralism and coVID-19, the economic and trade prospects of the Asia-Pacific region are still showing strong momentum of sustainable development.

Zhang Jianping, director of the Research Center for Regional Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, told 21st Century Business Herald that RCEP will cover the world’s two largest markets with the greatest growth potential, China’s 1.4 billion people and ASEAN’s 600 million-plus people.At the same time, these 15 economies, as important engines of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, are also important sources of global growth.

Zhang Jianping pointed out that once the agreement is implemented, the mutual trade demand within the region will grow rapidly due to the relatively large removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers and investment barriers, which is the trade creation effect.At the same time, trade with non-regional partners will be partially diverted to intra-regional trade, which is the transfer effect of trade.On the investment side, the agreement will also bring about additional investment creation.Therefore, the RCEP will boost the GDP growth of the whole region, create more jobs and significantly improve the well-being of all countries.

“Every financial crisis or economic crisis gives a powerful boost to regional economic integration because all economic partners need to stay together to cope with external pressures.At present, the world is facing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and is not out of the global economic recession.In this context, strengthening intra-regional cooperation is an objective need.”"We need to further tap the potential within the large markets covered by RCEP, especially as this is the region with the fastest growth in global demand and the strongest development momentum,” Zhang said.