The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP ) is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30% of the world's population (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($29.7 trillion), making it the largest trade bloc in history. Signed in November 2020, RCEP is the first free trade agreement among the largest economies in Asia, including China, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea.
The RCEP was conceived at the 2011 ASEAN Summit in Bali, Indonesia, while negotiations formally launched during the 2012 ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. India, which took part in the initial negotiations but later decided to opt out, was invited to join the bloc at any time. Any other country or separate customs territory in the region can accede to the pact from 1 July 2023 onward. The treaty was formally signed on 15 November 2020 at the virtual ASEAN Summit hosted by Vietnam. For the first ten ratifying countries, the trade pact took effect on 1 January 2022.
The RCEP includes a mix of high-, middle-, and low-income countries. It is expected to eliminate about 90% of the tariffs on imports between its signatories within 20 years of coming into force, and establish common rules for e-commerce, trade, and intellectual property. Several analysts predicted that it would offer significant economic gains for signatory nations, boost post-pandemic economic recovery, as well as "pull the economic centre of gravity back towards Asia, with China poised to take the lead in writing trade rules for the region," leaving the United States behind in economic and political affairs in the region. Reactions from others were neutral or negative, with some analysts saying that the economic gains from the trade deal would be modest. The RCEP was criticized by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, which alleged that it ignored labour, human rights, and environmental sustainability issues.
Membership
Signatories
All ten members of ASEAN (excludes candidate member ):
The three East Asian members of ASEAN Plus Three:
The two Oceanian members of ASEAN Plus Six:
Ratifications
Applicants
The trade agreement is open for new members 18 months after the partnership came into force. The following countries have applied for accession into the partnership:
Potential applicants:
The following countries have been subject to media attention surrounding their potential involvement in the RCEP:
: The British Foreign Affairs Committee urged the UK Government to assess membership of the RCEP, as part of the UK's 'Indo-Pacific tilt'.
Contents
The agreement is intended to reduce tariffs and red tape. It includes unified rules of origin throughout the bloc, which may facilitate international supply chains and trade within the region. It also prohibits certain tariffs. It does not focus on labour unions, environmental protection, or government subsidies.
The RCEP is not as comprehensive as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, another free trade agreement in the region that includes some of the same countries. The RCEP "does not establish unified standards on labour and the environment, or commit countries to open services and other vulnerable areas of their economies."
The tariffs schedule just for Japan is 1,334 pages long.
Projected value
The combined GDP of potential RCEP members surpassed the combined GDP of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) members in 2007. It was suggested that continued economic growth, particularly in China and Indonesia, could see total GDP in the original RCEP membership grow to over US$100 trillion by 2050, roughly double the project size of TPP economies. On 23 January 2017, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum withdrawing the United States from the TPP, a move which was seen to improve the chances of success for RCEP.