CME welcomes RCEP, calls for close monitoring
KUALA LUMPUR: The Center for Market Education (CME) welcomes the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which potentially leads to the creation of the world biggest free trade area.
“Free trade agreements are beneficial for all the parties involved and lead to the availability of better and cheaper products for the consumers in the area,” said Dr Carmelo Ferlito, chief executive officer of CME in a statement.
“Surely, the agreement will also be of help in the post-Covid-19 recovery path by creating growth and job opportunities.”
The Center for Market Education, however, invites to monitor two important aspects which are very much crucial to make RCEP effective and to achieve its desired outcomes.
“It is important that the new free trade area does not turn to be an economic colonisation area for China,” Ferlito said. “On the contrary, RCEP needs to be the occasion for China to embrace the relationship between free trade and fair trade; in fact, for the development of a true free trade agreement, duty policies are only a part of the picture: it is also necessary an institutional framework which supports that free trade making it fair.
“It is well known, in fact, that the Chinese legal framework is not always respectful of copyrights and needs to be strengthen. The same goes for the respect of human rights: economic ties can be an occasion to shape a change in the traditional Chinese approach to the rights of minorities and to the freedom of religion, opinion and speech.