The "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (referred to as "RCEP") has been in force for more than a year, and its dividends in promoting regional trade and investment growth and economic recovery have been continuously released. How to promote the full implementation and continuous upgrading of RCEP, jointly build the world's largest free trade zone, and further release the dividends of RCEP in deepening regional economic and trade cooperation and promoting regional economic recovery and growth have become major issues of concern to all walks of life.
On May 21, the Propaganda Department of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, China Daily, and China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute co-sponsored the "Building the World's Largest Free Trade Zone-2023RCEP Regional Development Media Think Tank Forum" in Haikou. Experts and scholars participating in the meeting shared views and exchanged ideas around "jointly building the world's largest free trade zone", and actively offered suggestions for promoting regional exchanges and cooperation.
Chi Fulin, president of the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, proposed that we should work together to build the world's largest free trade zone with high standards. He believes that, first, shared development is a prominent feature of RCEP. Development is the basis and premise for solving all problems; development based on the market and rules is sustainable development; shared development is the pursuit and goal of free trade in the new era. Second, high-level openness is an important goal of RCEP. It is necessary to adapt to the general trend, promote the high-level opening process of RCEP based on the needs of regional development, realize the early implementation of RCEP's opening commitments, promote the docking and integration of RCEP and CPTPP in a timely manner, and create important conditions for accelerating the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area. Third, ASEAN and China are the vitality and focus of the RCEP region. Accelerating the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 is the key to practically promoting the high-level opening process of RCEP. A high-level open China will form an important driving force for the construction of version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.
The participating experts said that the RCEP dividend should be fully released to promote the development of regional economic integration. Yi Xiaozhun, former deputy director general of the World Trade Organization and former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that the "China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement" (CAFTA) is the first step China has taken to promote economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is also the first step in reaching the RCEP agreement. important basis. RCEP is an important milestone in the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). APEC parties should further expand opening up, integrate the two major free trade agreements, RCEP and CPTPP, and finally realize mutually beneficial and win-win Asia-Pacific regional economic integration within the scope of APEC.
At the same time, RCEP has effectively promoted China's institutional opening, further enriched the connotation of China's opening up, and promoted the development of the Asia-Pacific economy in a more open, inclusive, inclusive and win-win direction. Weng Shijie, chairman of Malaysia's New Asian Strategic Research Center and former Minister of Transport of Malaysia, pointed out that RCEP is not a platform that only provides wealth to a few countries with competitive advantages, nor should it be measured only by statistical data such as GDP. It is essentially an An inclusive super-large free trade agreement aims to share the dividends of economic development and promote the common prosperity of the entire region. This is a hard-won victory, marking the victory of multilateral cooperation and free trade.
Ban Leyi, president of the Philippine-China Friendship Association, believes that RCEP is a powerful promoter of the development of the global economy and the Asia-Pacific economy, and can promote the prosperity of the RCEP region and the rest of the world. In order to ensure the realization of the expected goals of RCEP, attention must be paid to issues such as supply chain stability. With the resolute joint efforts of all members, RCEP can overcome some of the challenges it is currently facing and promote the process of regional economic integration.
Experts at the meeting suggested that economic and trade cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea under the framework of RCEP should be strengthened. Zhang Yunling, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a chair professor at Shandong University, pointed out that China, Japan and South Korea are inseparable natural economic partners. It is necessary to restore the framework of the China-Japan-ROK dialogue mechanism as soon as possible, accelerate the joint establishment of rules, and form a more convenient and lower-cost economic and trade cooperation pattern. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation at the local and enterprise levels, and pragmatically promote further breakthroughs in economic and trade cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea.
Ou Boqian, secretary-general of the China-Japan-Korea Cooperation Secretariat, pointed out that China-Japan-Korea economic and trade cooperation is facing not only important opportunities from RCEP, but also challenges from many aspects. It is recommended to establish the RCEP Secretariat as soon as possible to speed up the institutionalization of RCEP; fully tap the potential of RCEP rules of origin to better strengthen cooperation in the industrial chain and supply chain in the region; pay more attention to cooperation in health care, cross-border e-commerce, digital economy and other fields; Encourage the local governments of the three countries to strengthen cooperation.
Zhao Zhongxiu, president of the University of International Business and Economics, suggested that the tariff level of trade in goods should be reduced, and the tariff on specific products should gradually move closer to CPTPP; the mutual recognition of inspection and quarantine results, technologies, and standards should be improved; the liberalization of trade in services should be promoted, and the open field of trade in services should be further expanded Open up and improve the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the three countries; comprehensively optimize the investment environment, explore and expand cooperation in non-service areas; improve the level of intellectual property protection; improve the level of digital open governance.