RCEP

Participating states in the RCEP negotiations (colored yellow)

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been running since 2012 on free trade agreements between the ten ASEAN member states and originally six states with which the ASEAN alliance concluded free trade agreements. RCEP would be one of the largest free trade areas in the world. The closure of the zone, originally planned for 2017, is pending; India left negotiations in 2019.

target

Colored orange: member states of TPP

RCEP comprises states with more than three billion people and a gross domestic product of around 17 trillion US dollars. It affects about 40 percent of world trade . The key points of the contract, which was originally supposed to be completed in summer 2017, are the following:

• Cooperation between the member states in many areas
• Implementation of the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on free trade
• Reduction of tariffs
• Investing in the economy of the RCEP countries
• Determination of the members

Another goal of the RCEP is to create a counterweight to the Free Trade Agreement Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), in which the USA is also involved. The FTAAP (Free Trade Area of ​​the Asia-Pacific) also exists in the Pacific region .

trouble

Talks to conclude a free trade agreement stalled because India blocked regulations to reduce tariffs. As a result, the other negotiating partners even threatened to exclude India from the RCEP negotiations.

Planned members

The planned member states include:

• the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN):
  •  Brunei
  •  Indonesia
  •  Cambodia
  •  Laos
  •  Malaysia
  •  Myanmar
  •  Philippines
  •  Singapore
  •  Thailand
  •  Vietnam
• as well as the six states with which ASEAN signed free trade agreements:
  •  Australia
  •  People's Republic of China
  •  India (left negotiations in 2019)
  •  Japan
  •  New Zealand
  •  South Korea

Neither the USA nor the EU take part in the RCEP negotiations, but other states can participate after the negotiations are over.

See also

• ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement
• ASEAN Plus Three
• Trans-Pacific Partnership
• Asia-Pacific Economic Community
• EU-Japan free trade agreement

Web links

• Christoph Jehle: Pacific free trade competition

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PTI Feeds: Malaysia calls for early conclusion of RCEP pact . In: India.com . April 3, 2017 ( india.com [accessed May 5, 2017]).
2. ^ Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) . In: Civilsdaily . June 6, 2016 ( civilsdaily.com [accessed May 5, 2017]).