Recently, the 2024 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) Regional Development Media Think Tank Forum, sponsored by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, China Daily and China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, was held in Haikou, Hainan Province, with the theme of "sharing dividends and promoting development together", During the forum, the research report of "Releasing RCEP dividends with the focus on improving the utilization rate of rules - 2022-2023 Preliminary evaluation of RCEP implementation" was released.
Hundreds of experts and scholars from 19 countries and international organizations, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as representatives from the political and business circles, think tanks and mainstream media circles, focus on "comprehensively implementing RCEP, building a global economic growth center", "improving the utilization of RCEP rules, and promoting regional economic integration" The theme of "giving play to the role of media think tanks to promote the comprehensive implementation and upgrading of RCEP" was discussed. How is the current development of RCEP and what development potential is released? Listen to the experts.
Significantly promote intra regional trade and investment growth
"Since the formal implementation of RCEP, a new situation of regional cooperation in sharing dividends and promoting development together has initially taken shape." At the RCEP Regional Development Media Think Tank Forum, the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute released a research report entitled "Releasing RCEP dividends with emphasis on improving the utilization rate of rules - preliminary evaluation of 2022-2023 RCEP implementation" (referred to as the "preliminary evaluation report"), Based on relevant data, this paper makes a preliminary analysis of the overall progress since the formal implementation of RCEP, and puts forward relevant suggestions on releasing the dividend of RCEP.
According to the report statistics, on the one hand, RCEP promotes the rapid growth of intraregional trade. In 2022, the total intraregional trade of the 15 members of RCEP will increase significantly, and 10 of them will achieve double-digit growth. On the other hand, RCEP has strongly promoted the growth of investment in the region. In 2022, 15 members of RCEP will attract foreign direct investment of US $53.111 billion, up 13.9% year on year; Foreign direct investment reached 577.46 billion US dollars, up 21.7% year on year. In addition, the scale of intermediate trade in some member regions of RCEP has grown significantly, and the proportion of intermediate trade in total trade in RCEP region has risen from about 64.5% in 2021 to about 65% in 2022 and 66% in 2023. RCEP has not only promoted the economic growth of underdeveloped economies such as Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, but also promoted the connectivity and economic and trade integration of China, Japan and South Korea markets.
At the forum, experts and scholars from many countries and politicians and businessmen shared their observations on the benefits enjoyed by member countries since the comprehensive implementation of RCEP. Among them, the rapid growth of China ASEAN trade and investment is a major highlight of the joint construction of the RCEP regional market. Morax Sidragon, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos, believes that RCEP has greatly promoted the trade between China and ASEAN, brought development dividends to member countries in supply chain, industrial chain development, intellectual property protection and other fields, promoted the coordination of trade policies and standards among member countries, and further promoted the sustainable development of relevant countries.
"The effective implementation of RCEP makes up for the gap in the free trade agreement between China and Japan, Japan and South Korea." He Hezheng, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, said that RCEP involves rich connotations such as trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, e-commerce, and covers a wide range of countries. With the help of RCEP channels, China, Japan and South Korea can better carry out free trade, and more and more Japanese enterprises benefit from the low tax rate rules of RCEP. Jin Xingzhong, a distinguished professor of the School of International Studies of Korea University, believes that RCEP has played a significant role in promoting regional economic development since its full implementation. The comprehensive implementation of RCEP plays an important role in reducing tariffs, reducing trade barriers and promoting the integration of regional industrial chain supply chain value chain.
"RCEP is a very potential agreement, which has made great contributions to the development of the world economy. The blueprint of RCEP is in the process of continuous evolution." Ong Shijie, the chairman of Malaysia's Asia Pacific "Belt and Road" Joint Policy Committee and former Minister of Transport, said that promoting the formation of a unified big market for RCEP requires joint efforts of all parties and further improving the utilization rate of RCEP rules.
Continue to improve the utilization rate of rules of origin
A study by the World Bank pointed out that the breakthrough in the uniform cumulative rule of origin of RCEP has more than doubled the pulling effect of tariff concessions on economic growth. According to the statistics of the Customs Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Finance, Japan's preferential imports under RCEP in 2022 are equivalent to the sum of its preferential imports under the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), the Japan Europe Free Trade Agreement, and the Japan US Free Trade Agreement. RCEP has become Japan's largest free trade agreement in terms of preferential imports.
The utilization rate of rules of origin is an important indicator to measure the release of RCEP dividends. How to let more enterprises benefit from the RCEP rules of origin and fully release the dividends of the RCEP regional big market is one of the core topics of the participants during this forum.
According to the preliminary estimate of the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, on the basis of the existing trade scale, if the utilization rate of China's RCEP rules of origin is raised to the level of South Korea's exports to Japan, the value of preferential exports will exceed the current 10 times. Greatly improve the utilization rate of RCEP rules of origin, promote the integrated development of China, Japan and South Korea and ASEAN industrial chain supply chain, and will promote the improvement and upgrading of ASEAN industrial system. In the future, the release of dividends from RCEP policy will have a huge space in promoting trade and investment development, improving the level of benefits enjoyed by enterprises, and promoting economic growth.
Chi Fulin, president of China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, believes that at present, RCEP member countries need to take more measures to accelerate the improvement of the level of rule utilization and further enhance the vitality of the large market in the RCEP region. For example, promote the upgrading of RCEP rules of origin from "partial accumulation" to "full accumulation"; Realize the transition from "national tariff concessions" to "unified tariff concessions"; Taking the opportunity of reviewing the negative list of trade in services of some members, negotiate to shorten the restrictive measures on the negative list of investment, and promote a higher level of openness in mature fields such as agriculture and manufacturing; Explore higher level open standards in areas such as regulatory consistency, government procurement, e-commerce, green development, etc.
"According to the observation of the current implementation of RCEP, the utilization rate of RCEP rules by enterprises is mainly affected by such factors as the degree of tariff preference of RCEP, enterprises' awareness of RCEP, enterprises' expectations of using RCEP benefits, the complexity of RCEP rules and their matching with enterprises' professional capabilities, and the quality of government public services." Jia Qingguo, professor of the School of International Relations of Peking University, analyzed that to improve the utilization rate of RCEP, on the one hand, relevant competent departments of the governments of member countries need to increase their efforts to promote the policies that RCEP brings dividends to enterprises. When formulating and implementing policies, they should fully facilitate enterprises, help enterprises make good use of RCEP rules, and give full play to relevant industry associations, think tanks The supporting role of law firms and other relevant institutions in explaining terms and solving practical problems enables enterprises to fully understand the actual benefits of RCEP rules for enterprises. In addition, member countries should strengthen exchanges, summarize the experience and lessons learned in the process of policy implementation, jointly improve the awareness and utilization level of enterprises in the region on RCEP, constantly stimulate the vitality of RCEP, and promote the common development of member countries.
Jointly build a global economic growth center
The Peterson Institute for International Economics of the United States pointed out that by 2030, RCEP is expected to drive the net increase of member exports by 519 billion dollars. The preliminary evaluation report of China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute believes that, in the face of the severe challenges of accelerated global economic differentiation, shrinking demand and sluggish growth, the joint construction of a high-level regional large market for RCEP will not only bring important impetus to regional economic growth, but also inject important certainty into the global economy with significantly increased uncertainty.
"At present, some countries have taken such measures as" small courtyard and high wall "and" friendly shore outsourcing "to restrict global economic growth. RCEP has played a significant role in promoting intra regional trade and investment growth, made important contributions to global economic growth, and gradually formed the" economic geocenter "of the Asia Pacific region. Next, to build RCEP into a global economic growth center, we should pay more attention to building RCEP into a rule center and execution center, not only to establish rules, but also to implement rules. " Zhang Yuyan, member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the World Economic and Political Research Institute, said.
Zhang Yansheng, the chief researcher of China Center for International Economic Exchanges, analyzed that in the process of promoting the comprehensive implementation of RCEP, major countries in the region need to take responsibility, provide more public goods, promote the implementation of existing goods trade, service trade and other terms, help SMEs, especially enterprises in underdeveloped countries, better share the dividends of free trade, and promote the construction of RCEP capacity and system. It is worth emphasizing that in the current international situation, it is particularly important to enhance strategic mutual trust among RCEP members, promote the free flow of all elements in the region, help the injured to establish a compensation mechanism for their losses, so that all members can enjoy the dividends of free trade, help promote the constant upgrading of RCEP, and help RCEP members to jointly explore a new path of globalization.
Xue Lan, president of Su Shimin Academy of Tsinghua University, believes that in the current era of global green transformation and digital transformation, accelerating the cross-border flow of data among RCEP member countries requires accelerating the exploration of data exit facilitation mechanisms to improve the efficiency and security of data flow; Actively explore the development of emerging digital businesses and build an international data service industry cluster; Establish a cross sectoral mechanism for cross-border data flow and form a collaborative governance model.
Fahd Gohar Malik, Director of the Digital Media and Strategy Department of the Observer of Pakistan, believes that in the context of frequent global economic and trade exchanges and accelerated digital transformation, efficient cooperation between media and think tanks is conducive to ensuring the accuracy and quality of information. The media's answers to the relevant questions of the enterprise in the RCEP rules and the telling of the detailed stories in the implementation of the RCEP will also help to improve the enterprise's awareness of the RCEP rules and help the public understand the development process of the RCEP. In particular, online social media will help to spread relevant information around the world.
"To jointly build the regional big market of RCEP, all parties need to grasp the general trend, eliminate interference, and strengthen confidence. It needs to give full play to the role of media think tanks in the region, and work together to build a platform for intellectual support of RCEP, a platform for rule promotion, a platform for capacity improvement, and a platform for promoting cooperation achievements, so as to play a positive role in promoting the process of RCEP and jointly building the regional big market of RCEP," Chi Fulin said.
