By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY (CWBN)_ After eight years of negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed yesterday (Nov 15), by the trade ministers of China and 14 other countries, via video conference.
According to Damien O’Connor, New Zealand Minister for Trade and Export Growth, the RCEP encompasses close to one-third of the world’s population and global economy, and is projected to add US$186 billion to the world economy through improved regional trade.
The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, reported the event as a “victory” for China, and said that the agreement, which excludes the United States, “extends Beijing’s economic sway in the region”.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN members, the agreement includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and officials say that the door is left open for India, which pulled out of the deal last year owing to fierce domestic opposition to its market-opening requirements, to rejoin the bloc.
Ahead of the meeting on Sunday, Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, reaffirmed Japan’s commitment towards “broadening a free and fair economic zone”. The Prime Minister expressed hope to gain support from other countries “including a possibility of India’s future return to the deal”.
Even though the agreement is not expected to be integrating economies as the European Union does, it will further lower the already low tariffs between member states, and has set out trade rules that will facilitate investment and other businesses within the region.
As opposed to President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy of forming trade agreements with individual countries, the Premier of China, Li Keqiang, said the signing of the RCEP is “a victory of multilateralism and free trade”.
And even though President Trump’s opponent Joe Biden has been declared president-elect, analysts are skeptical that Biden would retract many of the US trade sanctions imposed on Beijing, given the nation’s human rights records and claims of espionage, violation of copyright and intellectual property laws, and unfairly benefiting from global trade.
Nevertheless, given China’s growing influence in the region, the president-elect is expected to seek increased involvement with Asia, in order to protect the interests of the United States.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
