1. What is RCEP?

RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) agreement". On November 15, 2020, the 10 ASEAN countries and 15 Asia Pacific countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand formally signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The signing of RCEP marks the official launch of the free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale and the greatest development potential in the world.

2. What is the significance of RCEP?

The RCEP came into effect as scheduled in early 2022, which will significantly

enhance the level of regional economic integration in East Asia. RCEP free trade zone.

The completion of the RCEP free trade zone is a new milestone in the regional economic integration of East Asia, which will significantly optimize the overall business environment in the region and further enhance the trade creation effect brought by the free trade agreement.

At the same time, RCEP will promote the integration of regional industrial chains, supply chains and value chains. RCEP will promote the free flow of economic factors in the region, strengthen the division of production and cooperation among members, drive the expansion and upgrading of the consumer market in the region, and promote the further development of the industrial chain and supply chain in the region.

3. What are the main contents of RCEP?

There are ten parts:

1.The main framework of the RCEP ;

2.Trade in Goods;

3.Cumulative rules of origin;

4.Trade in services;

5.Invest;

6.The field of trade facilitation;

7.The field of intellectual property;

8.The field of e-commerce;

9.Other regulatory topic areas;

10.Cooperate;

4. What is the ratio of China and RCEP member countries to immediately zero tariffs on each other?

More than 90% of trade in goods will eventually achieve zero tariffs, and the main reason is to reduce tariffs to zero immediately.

China and RCEP member countries immediately zero tariff ratio

5. What is the "Rule of Cumulative Origin"?

This rule is different from the "bilateral rules of origin" of most free trade agreements, which means that when goods enter the free trade partner country B from country A, intermediate products produced by multiple member states in the free trade agreement can be used to meet the requirements. Therefore, the threshold for country A to enjoy zero tariffs in country B is significantly lowered. For example, when a machine produced in China is usually exported to another country, the goods need to meet a certain domestic value added standard before they can obtain China's "originating qualification" and thus obtain tariff preferences. In other words, if the machine imported too many parts from Japan and South Korea, it may not be recognized as "originating in China". Under the RCEP framework, there is the so called "complete accumulation" concept, that is, the origin materials of all members in the region can be accumulated, and the above mentioned imported parts from Japan and South Korea can be "accumulated" when the "originating qualification" is recognized. , which greatly facilitates the optimal layout of the industrial chain within the entire RCEP scope.

6. Why is it important to establish free trade relations with Japan?

In the past, China has signed free trade agreements with the other 13 countries except Japan. The signing of a free trade agreement between China and Japan is an important breakthrough in China's implementation of the free trade zone strategy. The proportion of zero-tariff goods exported from Japan to China will expand to 86% from the current 8%. At the same time, Japan will implement zero tariffs on 88% of China's goods.

7. What does RCEP say about "trade facilitation"?

It has simplified customs clearance procedures, adopted advance rulings, pre-arrival processing, and the use of information technology to promote efficient management of customs procedures. Try to release the goods within 48 hours after the arrival of the goods; for express goods, perishable goods, etc, strive to release the goods within 6 hours after the arrival of the goods. Building on the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the Agreement strengthens risk analysis, auditing, certification,Enforcement of rules such as port inspections and emergency measures. Promote all parties to reduce unnecessary technical barriers to trade in standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

8. What are the commitments in the field of service trade investment in RCEP?

The first is to expand the scope of commitments on the basis of "trade entry":

①Manufacturing-related services: Wholly foreign-owned elderly care services are allowed. Allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned for-profit elderly care institutions;

②Architectural design and engineering services: Wholly foreign investment is allowed;

③All environmental services: Wholly foreign investment is allowed;

The second is to further remove restrictions on the basis of "accession to the WTO"

①Banking industry: The upper limit of foreign shareholding ratio has been canceled, and the total assets requirement for foreign-funded branches and subsidiaries has been canceled;

②Insurance industry: The upper limit on the proportion of foreign equity in life insurance companies has been abolished, the insurance agency and adjustment business has been liberalized, the business scope of foreign insurance brokerage companies has been expanded to be consistent with that of Chinese capital, and the operating period and total assets requirements for operating insurance brokerage business in China have been cancelled. Wait.

③Securities industry: The upper limit of foreign shareholding ratio of securities companies, fund management companies, and futures companies has been cancelled.

④International shipping: cancel the joint venture requirement, cancel the requirement that the board of directors and senior management must be Chinese nationality;

9. What is RCEP’s commitment to “investment liberalization”?

Adopt the negative list to make relatively open commitments to investment in five non service sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining. At the same time, some measures for investment protection, investment promotion and investment facilitation have been introduced.

RCEP has formed a unified system of rules, which will significantly improve the transparency of investment policies, and a good institutional environment will further attract investment from outside the region.

10. How does RCEP improve intellectual property protection?

The relevant intellectual property chapter of the agreement contains 83 clauses and 2 annexes. It is the chapter with the most content and the longest length in RCEP, and it is also the intellectual property chapter with the most comprehensive content included in the FTA China has signed. Covering a wide range of fields such as copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, patents, designs, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, anti-unfair competition, knowledge security enforcement, cooperation, transparency, and technical assistance. It includes both traditional intellectual property issues and new trends in the development of intellectual property protection. On the basis of the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization, the overall protection level of intellectual property rights in the region has been comprehensively improved.

11. What is the content of the RCEP "Sector of Electronic Commerce" chapter?

The e-commerce chapter includes rules for promoting paperless trade, promoting electronic authentication and electronic signatures, protecting personal information of e-commerce users, protecting online consumer rights, and strengthening regulatory cooperation for unsolicited commercial electronic information. And reached important consensus on cross-border information transmission, information storage and other issues.

12. What is the content of the “Additional Rule Issue Area”?

The chapter on trade remedies refers to the establishment of a transitional safeguard measure system to provide relief to parties who suffer from damages due to the implementation of the agreement on tax reduction II; it regulates written information, consultation opportunities, ruling announcements and explanations for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations to improve trade Remedy investigation transparency and normal process.

The competition policy chapter makes detailed provisions on competition legislation, competition law enforcement cooperation, consumer rights protection, etc., and puts forward specific and clear requirements for the standardization of law enforcement.

The chapter on government procurement is the first time that China has included government procurement rules in a plurilateral agreement, including information exchange and cooperation, providing technical assistance, and strengthening capacity building.

13. What is the chapter on "Cooperation"?

In order to promote the balanced development of all members in the region, RCEP has set up two chapters on SMEs and economic and technological cooperation. It stipulates that all parties will cooperate to implement technical assistance and capacity building projects, promote all parties to make full use of the agreement to develop their own economies, enable small and medium-sized enterprises and developing economies to better utilize RCEP results, continuously narrow the development gap among members, and promote regional economic efficiency. Inclusive development.