On December 29, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference. Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the press conference that since the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP) came into effect on January 1, 2022, trade between my country and other RCEP members has continued to grow rapidly. According to customs statistics, from January to November 2022, the total import and export volume between my country and other RCEP members was 11.8 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 7.9%, accounting for 30.7% of my country's total foreign trade import and export. Among them, my country's exports to other members of RCEP reached 6.0 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%, exceeding the overall growth rate of national exports by 5.8 percentage points. With the in-depth implementation of the agreement, its role in promoting intra-regional trade and investment will continue to emerge.
Shu Jueting said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to work with relevant departments to promote the high-quality implementation of RCEP and other free trade agreements, guide localities, industries and enterprises to make good use of the agreements, and continuously improve the comprehensive utilization efficiency of free trade agreements. At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce will use RCEP as a new starting point to negotiate and sign free trade agreements with more trading partners, expand the network of high-standard free trade areas facing the world; further improve the level of openness of trade in goods, trade in services and investment markets, and actively participate in the digital economy Negotiations on new rules and issues such as environmental protection and environmental protection, steadily expanding the opening up of rules, regulations, management, standards, etc., to better serve the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development.
