Workers work at the construction site of a sewage interception box culvert project in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 19, 2021, the first day of the 3-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. (Photo:Xinhua)

 
The effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a major victory for multilateralism and free trade, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday. 

We must tear down walls instead of building barriers, open up instead of isolation, and integrate instead of decoupling; this is the common voice of all RCEP members on solving global economic governance issues, Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson, said at a press briefing.

Wang's comment came after the RCEP came into effect on January 1, 2022, marking the formation of the world's largest free trade zone in terms of trade volume. 

The agreement came into effect across the first group of 10 countries - six ASEAN members, in addition to China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The RCEP covers a market of 2.2 billion people with a combined economic size of $26.2 trillion, or 30 percent of the world's GDP. 

With the formal entry of RCEP, the proportion of zero-tariff products between China and ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand and other member countries has increased significantly, and is moving toward the goal of achieving zero tariffs for more than 90 percent of the trade in goods, the spokesperson said. 

This will unleash the huge potential for trade growth within the region and is a major step to promote the liberalization and facilitation of global trade and investment, Wang said. 

As one of the first member states to complete the RCEP approval process, China has always maintained the multilateral trading system, and in the next step, China will work with all parties to actively participate in the construction of the RCEP mechanism, and make a positive contribution to promoting regional prosperity and global economic recovery, Wang said. 

Global Times