I. Further promoting RCEP negotiations is of great significance.

The second ministerial meeting of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on August 27, 2014, which triggered the high attention from all circles to the progress of RCEP negotiations. The RCEP is a regional trade agreement plan put forward and driven by ASEAN in 2011, with its members including 10 ASEAN countries and China, Japan, ROK, Australia, New Zealand and India which have sighed Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN. The RCEP is the trade agreement negotiations with the most members and largest scale in East Asia, which is an integration of the existing Free Trade Areas, with the negotiation goal of reaching a modern, comprehensive, high quality and reciprocal free trade agreement between ASEAN and its free trade partners. RCEP negotiations have a wide coverage, touching not only goods, services and market access of investment, but also many issues of rules in emerging areas, including trade in goods, trade in service, investment, dispute settlement mechanism, economic and technology cooperation, intellectual property rights and competition policies.

Economic ministers of 16 countries passed the Guideline and Goals of RCEP Negotiations in August 2012, defining the goals, domain and range of RCEP negotiations. In November 2012, leaders of ASEAN and its free trade partners released the Joint Declaration of Launching RCEP Negotiations, putting forward the goal of reaching agreement in 2015, and the negotiations were officially launched henceforth. After that, the 16 parties established the Trade Negotiation Committee and related working groups, and held five rounds of negotiations in Brunei, Australia, Malaysia, China and Singapore respectively from May 2013 to June 2014. In the first three rounds of negotiations, the liberalization pattern of market access and text negotiations of all sectors entered into a substantial stage, and the parties reached initial consensus on tariff reduction, rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, as well as establishing mechanism in rules. The fourth round of negotiations achieved active progress in goods, services, investment, and the framework of the agreement. The emphasis of the fifth round were goods, services, investment, economic and technology cooperation, intellectual property rights, competition and the rule of law and mechanism. The domain, range and propulsion mode of RCEP negotiations were also discussed, and views were exchanged on the framework of the agreement. The sixth round of RCEP negotiations will be held in New Delhi, India in December 2014.

The RCEP is conducive to the economic benefit of Asian and Pacific countries. As a trade agreement negotiation with the most members in East Asia and the largest scale, the RCEP covers 16 Asian and Pacific countries, with almost half the world’s population (3.435 billion in 2013). In 2013, the gross value of production reached US$ 21 trillion, with export exceeding US$ 5 trillion, accounting for about 30% of the world’s economy and total exports. After its completion, the RCEP will be the only regional free trade agreement plan in the Asia-Pacific region that is equivalent to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and will be higher than the TPP in terms of economic effect. According to estimates by experts, once the RCEP is completed, the eradication of tariff and non-tariff barriers alone would raise the GDP of the Asia-Pacific region by 2.1%, and that of the world by 1.4%. The completion of the TPP would raise the GDP of the Asia-Pacific region and the world by 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively.

The RCEP is beneficial to the promotion of regional trade and investment liberalization. The RCEP will realize a higher-level liberalization of trade in goods gradually on the basis of the current liberalization of participant countries. The trade in service will be even more open than the participants to GATS and the ASEAN Plus One Free Trade Agreement have committed. Negotiations on investment will cover the four areas of promotion, protection, facilitation and liberalization of investment, in order to forge a more liberalized, facilitated and competitive investment environment. It is predicted that the completion of the RCEP will enhance the liberalization of trade and investment in East Asia and improve the regional trade and investment environment, so as to promote the development of regional trade and investment.

The RCEP contributes to the formation of rule systems that accord with the development interests of East Asia. Apart from the market access clauses, the RCEP covers many negotiations on rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBT), intellectual property rights, competition policies and economic and technological cooperation. Members of the RCEP negotiations are mainly Asian developing countries. Formulating a unified regional rule through negotiations and consultations is not only beneficial to relieving the “noodle bowl” effect caused by the overlapping of free trade agreements, but also conducive to forming rule systems that accord with the development of Asia in more sectors, so as to increase the voice in the new round of international rules game.

The RCEP helps accelerating the establishment of the Asian-Pacific Free Trade Area. It is the common vision and goal of the countries in the region to establish the Asian-Pacific Free Trade Area and promote regional economic integration. In May 2014, at the economic ministers’ meeting of APEC, all the countries agreed to launch the establishment of the Asian-Pacific Free Trade Area and formulate the Road Map for APEC’s Contribution to the Realization of an FTAAP. The RCEP is an open and inclusive regional trade agreement, covering 16 Asian-Pacific countries currently. The negotiations will integrate the five free trade agreements that have been reached in ASEAN, and have the possibilities to expand to other countries and regions. After its completion, the RCEP and the TPP together will become the footstone of the Asian-Pacific Free Trade Area and accelerate its final completion.

The RCEP is beneficial to strengthening the cohesion of the Asian-Pacific region. In recent years, with the peaceful rise of China and the constantly rising status of emerging economies of Asia in global economy, the Asia-Pacific region has gradually become a hot area in power game. Not only is the United States accelerating the implementation of the strategy of “Asian-Pacific Rebalance,” but the EU and Russia are speeding up implementing their plans in the region. The regional political and security environment is more and more complex, sovereignty disputes over territories and territorial waters are going on and on, and some countries even face turmoil and crisis. The participating countries of the RCEP are all core countries in the Asian-Pacific region, therefore, regarding the construction of the RCEP free trade area as the link, promoting regional integration, further strengthening and enlarging economic effect of mutual beneficial cooperation, enabling economic and trade relationship of all countries to be closer and promoting more rapid development of regional economy are beneficial to strengthening the cohesion of the Asian-Pacific region and of great importance to the peace and stability of this region.

There are 16 participating members in the RCEP with big gaps in development levels and different interest demands. Besides, they have certain divergence in such aspects as the level of trade liberalization, dealing with sensitive products, rules of origin, opening modes and fields of service trade, investment and intellectual property rights. If they hold on their own views and push back at each other, it is difficult to reach agreement. To accelerate the negotiations to smoothly realize the goal of reaching agreementin 2015,all parties need to actively compromise and concede, seek the moderation and balance of liberalization level and rules and standards and finally reach a comprehensive, high-quality and win-win free trade agreement.

II. China will play an important role in negotiations.

Participating in and encouraging all parties to reach RCEP agreement is beneficial to establishing a high-standard free trade area network based on the surroundings and facing the globe and creating greater political and economic benefits, which is in China’s strategic interests. As the biggest economy in the members of RCEP negotiations, China is capable of and responsible for playing an important role in the RCEP negotiations and accelerating the process of the negotiations positively and actively.

The RCEP is the key point of accelerating the implementation of the FTA strategy in China. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Partyof China proposed “accelerating the establishment of FTAs,”“accelerating the implementation of the FTA strategy based on the surroundings,” and “forming a high-standard FTA network facing the globe.”The members of the RCEP negotiations are all important economic and trade partners around China. Therefore, promoting RCEP agreement is the key point of accelerating the implementation of the FTA strategy of China and establishing a high-standard FTA network based on the surroundings and facing the globe.

The establishment of the RCEP is in the strategic interests of China. The RCEP is the largest FTA China has ever negotiated on. The members of the negotiations include ASEAN, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, which are not only large economic entities and China’s important economic and trade partners, but also important partners of production networks in East Asia and cooperation in the global value chain. In 2013, the import and export volume between China and 15 RCEP members exceeded US$1.2 trillion, accounting for 30% of the total foreign trade in China. The smooth establishment of the RCEP is of great importance to China’s fighting for the initiative of the new round reconstruction of international economic and trade rules, guaranteeing the autonomous right of domestic economic development, raising China’s position in the global industrial value chain, creating a more relaxed external environment for foreign trade and economic cooperation, cultivating harmonious and stable surroundings for China’s peaceful development and safeguarding and lengthening the strategic development opportunity period.

China is capable of playing an important role in the RCEP negotiations. After more than 30 years’ reform and opening up, especially the rapid development in the more than 10 years after entering into the World Trade Organization, China’s economy, enterprise competitiveness and economic administration level have all improved remarkably, its ability to participate in global competition has been enhanced significantly, and the requirements for external market development are more pressing. Among the16 RCEP members, China’s the largest economy and the first to sign the FTA agreement with ASEAN. Therefore, China is capable of and responsible for playing an important role in the negotiations.

China should actively speed up accelerating the process of RCEP negotiations. In response to the disagreements and difficulties in the negotiations, we should strengthen communication with all members, seek common points while reserving differences under more flexible rules, and jointly seek intelligent solutions with creative thinking. What is more, we need to build consensus within the country and participate in and promote the RCEP negotiations with a more open standpoint and more confident state of mind. We should comprehensively consider and discuss the gains and losses of general interests and partial interests, dare to take the RCEP negotiations as the test field for further deepening reform and opening up, take this as an opportunity to promote a new round and high-level opening up, improve domestic liberalization level in such fields as goods, service and investment and accelerate the convention with international communities in the fields of rules and standards, which can result in truly playing a positive and active role in the negotiations and accelerating the process of negotiations with practical actions.

In April, Premier Li Keqiang said at the Boao Forum in Hainan that China is willing to work with all parties to actively promote the process of the negotiations, hoping that agreement could be reached in 2015. Now the second economic and trade ministers’ meeting of the RCEP is held in Myanmar and we expect all countries to make concerted efforts, strengthen communication and cooperation, jointly promote subsequent negotiations to make breakthroughs as soon as possible, smoothly realize the goal of reaching agreement in 2015 and lay a solid foundation for the grand blueprint of jointly building the Asia-Pacific FTA.

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