RCEP e-commerce provisions seen completed by June
THE Philippines expects the completion of the e-commerce
provisions of the Regional Com
prehensive Economic Partner
ship (RCEP) within the first half
of the year.
“The party that gave us the deadline is the ASEAN Secretariat... and the deadline is roughly by the second round of discussions,
or the first half of 2019,” Maria
Lourdes A. Yaptinchay, Director for the Department of Trade and
Industry’s (DTI) Bureau of Trade
and Industrial Policy Research, told BusinessWorld in Makati
City last week.
Ms. Yaptinchay, also the designated Philippine negotiator for
the RCEP’s e-commerce chapter,
said completion was originally set for last year but some countries raised unspecified objections.
The DTI’s position on e-commerce is that it significantly lowers the barriers to entry and operating costs for businesses, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which com
prise 99.6% of all registered busi
nesses in the Philippines.
Potential members of the partnership will meet again in February to mark the first round of negotiations for this year.
The deadline for the e-commerce chapter will permit the completion of the RCEP deal “not
later” than November, according to Trade Secretary Ramon M.
Lopez.
The DTI earlier revealed that seven out of the 18 chapters had been concluded to date.
The completed chapters deal
with Customs Procedures and
Trade Facilitation; Government Procurement; Institutional Provisions; Sanitary and PhytoSanitary Measures; Standards,
Trade Regulations, and Confor
mity Assessment Procedures; Small and Medium Enterprises;
and Economic and Technical Co
operation.
Members are looking to conclude, among others, the core chapter which concerns market access for goods, investments and services.
The pact involves the 10 ASEAN member states, plus Australia,
China, India, Japan, South Korea
and New Zealand.
Once concluded, RCEP will
be one of the biggest free trade
agreements with the 16 partici
pating countries accounting for almost half of the world popu
lation; 31.6% of global output; 28.5% of global trade; and a fifth
of the global foreign direct invest
ment inflows as of 2016. — Janina C. Lim