Despite the complicated and severe international situation and the repeated delays of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) has continued to release dividends in the lively "circle of friends" since it came into effect at the beginning of this year. The trade results between China and the other 14 member countries of RCEP Remarkable. As the world's largest free trade zone, RCEP provides support for maintaining the stability of the regional industrial chain and supply chain, and brings a touch of color to the economic globalization that has encountered headwinds, benefiting the region and the world.
Multi-point flowering bonus stretches
The latest data show that from January to August, the total trade volume between China and RCEP partners reached 1.3 trillion US dollars, accounting for more than 30%. Among them, the growth rate to Malaysia and Singapore exceeded 30%, and the growth rate to Indonesia and Australia exceeded 20%, which were higher than the overall growth rate of China’s foreign trade in the same period; the growth rate to Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, New Zealand, etc. also exceeded China’s export of goods overall growth rate.
"In terms of total volume, RCEP has become an important boost to the steady growth of China's trade in goods." Yuan Bo, deputy director of the Asia Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with a reporter from International Business Daily that China's exports to major RCEP partners have achieved rapid growth, which also shows that RCEP has brought results for Chinese companies to expand their export markets.
The RCEP policy dividend has also promoted the accelerated growth of economic and trade exchanges between China and ASEAN. Yang Changyong, a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Economics of the China Academy of Macroeconomics, told the reporter of International Business Daily that since the implementation of RCEP, China and ASEAN have achieved a higher level of trade liberalization and facilitation on the basis of the original free trade area, which has made China The closer trade ties with ASEAN have consolidated ASEAN's position as China's largest trading partner. "This has played a strong role in promoting the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' between China and ASEAN, promoting the high-quality development of China's foreign trade, and promoting the construction of a closer China-ASEAN community of shared future.
"The effective implementation of RCEP this year and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area have formed a good superimposed effect, which has played a good role in promoting trade." Yuan Bo also said that the trade between China and ASEAN accounts for nearly half of the total RCEP partners. And the growth rate is also the fastest among RCEP partners.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first eight months, South Korea was China's fourth largest foreign trade partner. The total trade value between China and South Korea was 1.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.8%, accounting for 5.9%.
In Yang Changyong's view, RCEP has enhanced the closeness of trade between China and South Korea. "It should be said that under the background of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea this year, thanks to the promotion of RCEP, the economic and trade relations between China and South Korea have become closer. This has an important role in promoting the second phase of the China-South Korea Free Trade Agreement negotiations. It is of great significance for the two sides to start a new stage of economic and trade cooperation."
"From the perspective of foreign trade entities, small and medium-sized enterprises have significantly increased their exports to RCEP member countries, and the spillover effect of RCEP is gradually emerging." Yang Changyong said. The "Regional Activity Index of China's Small, Medium and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises Exporting to RCEP from January to August 2022" shows that with the continuous release of RCEP policy dividends, the number of Chinese small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises exporting to RCEP member countries from January to August increased by 36.4% year-on-year. During the same period, the proportion of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises' export RCEP receipts increased by 2.79%.
"RCEP has only been in effect for 9 months, and its role in promoting trade is still gradually emerging." Yang Changyong also said that for other member states such as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, RCEP will also give these countries mutual and regional cooperation. The economic and trade cooperation with other countries in China brings good expectations.
Benefit the region and benefit the world
As a free trade agreement with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, and the greatest development potential in the world, RCEP is bringing tangible benefits to regional economic and trade development and adding a touch of color to the world economy.
Yuan Bo said that since RCEP came into effect, the foreign trade of most members has achieved rapid growth. For example, from January to June, trade growth between South Korea and Australia exceeded 20%, and that of most other members exceeded 10%. The effective implementation of RCEP has also enabled multinational companies to increase investment in this region, bringing benefits to many member states for introducing foreign direct investment. For example, in the first half of the year, Thailand attracted 69.969 billion baht of foreign direct investment, an increase of 73.5% year-on-year; the foreign direct investment attracted by Indonesia reached 310.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah, an increase of 35.8% year-on-year; the foreign investment commitments attracted by Singapore's manufacturing and service industries were 7.28 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.1%; Vietnam attracted foreign direct investment of 14.03 billion U.S. dollars, and the executed foreign investment was 10.06 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 8.9%.
Yang Changyong further analyzed that from the perspective of trade in goods, after the implementation of RCEP, greater tariff reductions and trade liberalization can play an important role in promoting trade in goods among member countries. Among the RCEP member countries, China is the second largest consumer market and the second largest importer in the world, while Japan, South Korea, ASEAN and other countries have a relatively rich supply of high-quality products and services as well as some primary products. The implementation of RCEP will effectively promote the complementary advantages of various countries and expand trade cooperation, which is undoubtedly a bright spot for the current countercurrent of economic globalization.
From the perspective of trade in services, 7 of the RCEP member countries have adopted the negative list model of service trade opening commitments, while 8 countries including China have temporarily adopted the positive list, but also promise to convert it into a negative list within 6 years after the agreement takes effect mode, and the degree of openness is higher than their respective "10+1" levels. This will also promote the development of intra-regional service trade, and even drive the development of global service trade.
From the perspective of investment, the 15 member states have adopted a negative list model to open investment in 5 non-service industries, superimposing rules of origin, etc., to maintain the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain in the region, and then drive the recovery of the global industrial chain and supply chain to normal Running will play a big role.
