China reiterates support for RCEP trade talks

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has reiterated its firm stance on the joint promotion procedure surrounding Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations.

Once accomplished, the will RCEP become a 16-state free-trade zone covering a population of 3.5 billion people — approximately 39 percent of the world’s population — and a combined GDP of $49.5 trillion.

Chan Chun Sing, a minister from the Singaporean prime minister’s office, said in a recent interview that the top priority for ASEAN and China this year is to complete their RCEP negotiations. Chan mentioned that China, with its strong central government, is a significant partner, which can set higher standards for the world’s economic system by redistributing benefits more evenly across different regions.

Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, responded that Beijing has always attached great importance to the RCEP talks and is willing to enhance its communication with related parties, including Singapore, to conclude negotiations as soon as possible.

Viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which includes several Asian and American nations but neither China nor India), the RCEP is a proposed free-trade agreement between the 10 ASEAN nations and six others with which they have existing free trade agreements, namely China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The 16 nations have held 20 rounds of negotiations since 2012, when RCEP discussions were formally launched. Although all participants agreed that it is in their best interests to build an Asian economic unit, the difficulties lie in the huge political, economic, diplomatic, cultural and historical differences which exist among them.