Lack of driving force causes delay for RCEP
SHAH ALAM: Lack of a driving forcesin steering the negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has caused delay in concluding the international trade pact, said International Trade and Industry Second Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan.
“RCEP is about integrating trade between countries and there is no issues between the 10 Asean countries as we are already integrating our system.
“However, the issue is with the six additional countries as these countries need to realign their trade policies with the pact’s requirement.
“By right, Asean countries should lead the negotiation, however, it is better for bigger countries to lead it ,” he said, citing that the United States is spearheading the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as the country made up of 60 per cent of TPP’s combined Gross Domestic Product.
Ong yesterday attended the Eighth Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) International Plastics Conference.
To date, only two out of 20 chapters in the RCEP agreement namely on economic and technical cooperation and on small and medium enterprises has been concluded.
Senior officials will meet in Hyderabad, India, from July 19 to July 28 while ministers will meet in September in the Philippines to further review the progress and any specific issues that remain unresolved.
Ong noted that the challenging part of concluding the RCEP negotiation was the issue of the services sector.
Meanwhile, he also noted that associations in the plastics industry were currently working on initiatives to push the region’s plastic industry.
RCEP potentially includes more than three billion people or 45 per cent of the world’s population, with a combined GDP of US$21.3 billion, accounting for about 40 per cent of the world trade.