14th Round of Negotiations – 15-19 August 2016, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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The 14th meeting of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) and Related Meetings was held from 15 to 19 August 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Following on from the recently concluded Fourth RCEP Ministerial Meeting held on 5 August 2016, the TNC focused its efforts on advancing market access negotiations, especially on the core areas of trade in goods, trade in services and investment to ensure a balanced, high-quality and mutually beneficial comprehensive economic partnership. The TNC concentrated its efforts on reaching broad landing zones on the key outstanding issues while acknowledging considerable work remains. Discussions also focused on other outstanding issues, such as whether to include government procurement in the scope of the RCEP Agreement.

Text-based negotiations in other areas of negotiations were also discussed, including on competition, intellectual property, economic and technical cooperation, e-commerce and legal and institutional issues.

The TNC also discussed the preparations for the two remaining rounds in 2016, which would be held in October in Tianjin, China and in December in Indonesia.

Source: Source: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade