Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) dialogue partners are advancing the review of legal texts, with an expectation of the process finishing in July so the pact can be signed at the ASEAN Summit in Vietnam later this year as scheduled.

Free trade agreement (FTA) generates both winners and losers, and the formation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is no exception. This column argues that tariff reduction under RCEP is likely to reduce ASEAN’s exports as it will erode trade preferences of ASEAN granted by existing FTA partners.

China is working with other parties to push for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to be signed as scheduled.

The conclusion of text-based negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019 paves the way for the economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen their economic integration with five of its dialogue partners, namely Australia, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and New Zealand.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal is expected to be signed at the end of this year, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi said on the sideline of the 26th Meeting of ASEAN Economic Ministers Retreat held in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang Wednesday.

ASEAN countries have agreed to try and persuade India to return to the negotiating table for the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade deal.

Australia is willing to consider a bilateral free trade agreement with India on the lines of the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, that New Delhi chose to exit in November last year, that would capture the work already done between the two countries while the negotiations were on, the country’s Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has said.

India’s apprehensions on getting a raw deal if it joins RCEP have not yet been addressed.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations first took place in Cambodia in November 2012, while the first round of negotiations in Brunei were held in May 2013 while the first RCEP Summit was held in the Philippines in November 2017.

Snub is a further sign New Delhi may pull out of trade deal negotiations