On January 1, 2022, the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP) officially came into effect, and the world's most populous, largest economic and trade scale, and most promising free trade zone set sail.
It has been one year since RCEP came into effect. Against the backdrop of rising anti-globalization trends and sluggish recovery of the world economy, China, as an important participant in regional economic cooperation, has implemented RCEP with high quality, boosting the continuous development of the regional economy and contributing to the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the world. Inject new impetus.
Dividend release: Trade and investment liberalization and facilitation continue to advance
RCEP currently has 15 member countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and 10 ASEAN countries, accounting for about 30% of the global total in terms of population, economic volume, and total trade. Since RCEP came into effect, policy dividends have been continuously released, which has become the biggest highlight of world economic growth.
RCEP covers all aspects of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and its key content is tariff reduction and exemption - more than 90% of goods trade in the region will gradually achieve zero tariffs.
On March 18, 2022, the day when RCEP officially came into effect for Malaysia, 24 trucks exported by Beijing Foton International Trade Co., Ltd. received the first RCEP certificate of origin for the country issued by Beijing Customs.
Benefiting from the effective implementation of RCEP, Beiqi Foton's export tariff to Malaysia has been reduced from 30% to 5%, and will be reduced to zero year by year, which greatly enhances the competitiveness of enterprises. From January to November 2022, Beiqi Foton will export a total of 13,162 vehicles to RCEP member countries, and it is estimated that 22.15 million yuan in tariffs can be reduced or exempted.
In Zhejiang, since RCEP came into effect, Yiwu Small Commodity is also more competitive. From January to November 2022, Yiwu issued a total of 5,076 RCEP preferential certificates of origin, with a total amount of 97.1305 million US dollars, and the cumulative tariff reduction and exemption exceeded 6.77 million yuan.
Exports are more competitive, while imports are cheaper, faster, and more selective.
At the airport port of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, a cargo plane loaded with fresh fruits landed one after another. Since 2022, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Customs has supervised imports of durians, nectarines, cherries, mangosteens and other special fruits from RCEP member states exceeding 440 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.2 times.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to November 2022, the total import and export volume between China and other RCEP member countries was 11.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%, accounting for 30.7% of China's total foreign trade import and export. Among them, China's exports to other RCEP member countries increased by 17.7% year-on-year, exceeding the overall growth rate of China's exports by 5.8 percentage points.
It not only promotes trade, but also benefits investment.
In terms of investment, RCEP has set up relevant rules for investment liberalization, investment protection, investment promotion and investment facilitation measures, and the level of openness is significantly higher than that of the original bilateral free trade agreements among member states.
China, Japan, and Japan and South Korea have established free trade relations for the first time through RCEP, and the dividends of opening up are particularly obvious. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to November 2022, South Korea and Japan's actual investment in China increased by 122.1% and 26.6% year-on-year respectively.
High-quality implementation: help enterprises enjoy stable chain
The effectiveness of an agreement lies in its implementation. Over the past year, China has implemented RCEP with high quality and promoted the implementation of various systems.
RCEP covers the multilateral e-commerce rules with the widest scope and the largest number of members reached in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is also the e-commerce agreement with the highest level of China's participation.
"The implementation of RCEP has brought a series of facilitation measures such as customs clearance and taxation, which have greatly improved the export efficiency of cross-border e-commerce, and further reduced the cost of enterprises. Since 2022, our monthly cross-border e-commerce export volume has exceeded 3,000 tons on average. This is unimaginable before." said Zeng Yi, customs manager of Guangzhou Huigou Supply Chain Co., Ltd.
New e-commerce rules, cumulative rules of origin, approved exporter system, back-to-back certificates of origin... a series of institutional arrangements in RCEP can effectively reduce production costs in the region, improve trade efficiency, and strengthen cooperation in the industrial and supply chains in the region.
It is unavoidable that after RCEP takes effect, some industries in China will be subject to competition from products in the region. To this end, China implements RCEP with high standards, constantly shaping new advantages in cooperation and competition.
6 departments including the Ministry of Commerce issued guidelines for high-quality implementation of RCEP; national commerce departments and the trade promotion system organized RCEP series of special training; local customs continued to optimize the certificate of origin visa model and supervision process; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology supported the expansion of the export of superior industrial products and accelerated transformation and upgrading Traditional industries and the cultivation and development of emerging industries; the State Administration for Market Regulation has established fixed and standardized information exchange channels with multiple RCEP member states to better develop the international market with the support of standards...
Greenspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said that in the face of declining global openness, rising trade costs and bottlenecks in the supply chain, RCEP has contributed to the development of the world economy. China is playing an increasingly important role in promoting global openness and cooperation and maintaining the multilateral trading system.
Huge Potential: Promoting the Deepening of Regional Economic Integration
From January 2, 2023, RCEP will take effect for Indonesia.
Recently, Qingdao customs officials are working with Sun Junzhi, general manager of Qingdao Sanmu Aquatic Products Co., Ltd., to design an enterprise enjoyment plan. Sun Junzhi said that starting from January 2, enterprises can enjoy zero-tariff treatment for frozen salmon slices exported to Indonesia. "For the aquatic product processing industry, which is not very profitable, it is a new opportunity and a great benefit."
Yao Yong, the first-level senior director of the Qingdao Customs Customs Department, said that in the first 11 months of 2022, Shandong’s exports to Indonesia increased by 29.3% year-on-year. Enterprises enjoy "from scratch" and "from less to more".
Industry insiders pointed out that RCEP has integrated the "fragmented" economic and trade institutional arrangements in East Asia to the greatest extent, promoted the deepening of regional economic integration, and has become the biggest starting point for developing regional economic growth potential.
From January 1, 2022, RCEP will come into effect for 10 countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and for South Korea from February 1, and from March 18 Effective for Malaysia and effective for Myanmar from May 1. As RCEP will come into force for Indonesia in the new year, the number of RCEP's 15 signatories will reach 14.
Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the next step, RCEP will be used as a new starting point to negotiate and sign free trade agreements with more trading partners, expand the network of high-standard free trade zones facing the world; further improve trade in goods, trade in services and Invest in the level of market openness, actively participate in negotiations on new rules and issues such as the digital economy and environmental protection, and steadily expand institutional openings such as rules, regulations, management, and standards, so as to better serve the construction of a new development pattern and promote high-quality development.
Professor Christopher Pissarides, a Nobel laureate in economics, believes: "Signing bilateral and multilateral trade agreements is a good way to break down barriers and benefit more people. RCEP is a good example."
