RCEP Photo:VCG

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entered into force in the Philippines on Friday, marking that the pact takes effective for all 15 members, a new stage of full implementation of the free trade area with the largest population, largest economic and trade volume in the world.
 
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said the framework will inject strong momentum to regional economic integration, and contribute to long-term regional and global economic stability and development.
 
The full entry into force of RCEP fully demonstrates that the 15 parties have taken practical actions to support an open, free, fair, inclusive and rules-based multilateral trading system, and are committed to continuously promoting a comprehensive, mutually beneficial and high-level economic partnership, MOFCOM said.
 
The 15-party commitment to open goods, services and investment markets, superimposed with high-level rules in various fields, will greatly promote the free flow of production factors such as raw materials, products, technologies, talents, capital, information and data in the region, and promote the gradual formation of a more prosperous market. The large regional market promotes wider integration, higher-level and deeper open cooperation among member states, it added.
 
The full entry into force of RCEP will provide a strong boost to China's high-level opening-up.
 
Continuing to promote the high-quality implementation of RCEP will help further promote the integrated development of regional industrial and supply chains, and help promote the realization of a higher level of institutional opening-up from a higher starting point, MOFCOM said.
 
The implementation of the RCEP has played an important role in stabilizing China's foreign trade and foreign investment, and the trade in goods among the members has become closer.
 
From the perspective of trade, in 2022, the total import and export volume between China and other RCEP members hit 12.95 trillion yuan ($1.77 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent, accounting for 30.8 percent of China's total foreign trade, according to MOFCOM.
 
From January to April 2023, the total import and export volume between China and other RCEP members was 4.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent, accounting for 30.9 percent of China's total foreign trade.
 
From the perspective of attracting foreign capital, in 2022, China's actual investment from other RCEP members was $23.53 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.1 percent. From January to April 2023, China actually utilized nearly $8.9 billion in investment from other RCEP members, a year-on-year increase of more than 13.7 percent.
 
MOFCOM said it will continue to promote the implementation of RCEP tariff reduction commitments, service trade and investment opening commitments into practice.
 
Global Times