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Asian nations to ink big Chinese-backed trade deal on Nov. 15, covering around a third of the world's population

RCEP signed.

Finally, 8 damn years. It should be signed years ago without India.

Only the most stupid org will drag India into multilateral trade negotiation in future.

China disliked India in RCEP for good reasons.
 
Asian nations to ink big Chinese-backed trade deal on Nov. 15

KYODO NEWS - Nov 11, 2020 - 19:48

Japan, China, South Korea and 12 other Asia-Pacific countries on Wednesday wrapped up eight-year talks on a regional trade deal, setting the stage for their leaders' signing of the agreement that will cover around a third of the world's population, officials said.

The 15 members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will sign the deal on Sunday without India, which has skipped all talks since late last year due to concern about an increase in trade deficits with China.


With the accord aimed at cutting tariffs and establishing common rules for trade, e-commerce and intellectual property, even without India, an economic bloc representing around a third of the world's gross domestic product will be created.

For Japan, it will be its first free trade deal that includes China, its biggest trading partner, and South Korea.

China has played an active role in realizing the RCEP as it was not part of the U.S.-led initiative to create another massive free trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In his opening remarks, Vietnam's trade minister Tran Tuan Anh, who chaired an online meeting, said the countries have reached the "finishing line" and thanked them for their efforts to conclude the long-running talks.

"All RCEP participating countries have concluded negotiations and will sign the RCEP agreement this Sunday," Malaysia's trade ministry said in a statement released following the ministerial meeting.

The remaining 15 RCEP members are set to make a special arrangement so that India can smoothly return to the pact in the future.

Japanese government sources said India will be exempted from a stipulation that RCEP signatories will not accept new entrants to the framework for a certain period of time.

India, which said in November last year it will not take part in further negotiations, has sought safeguards as it is wary that its domestic manufacturing and agricultural industries will take a hit by imports from China.

At the ministerial meeting, Japan's trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said the inclusion of India would be important even after the signing of the deal, according to an official.

In the envisioned agreement, Japan will retain tariffs on its five sensitive agricultural product categories -- rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar -- to protect domestic farmers from a potential influx of cheap imports, according to a draft of the pact.

While the RCEP never included the United States, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the world's largest economy from negotiations on the original TPP in 2017 in pursuit of his "America First" policy.

RCEP groups Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the 10 members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...sters-in-final-talks-for-rcep-trade-deal.html


Congrats :toast_sign:
 
This is yet another Zollverein or EU. First to be absorbed into Sinosphere will be the Mekong states.

ASEAN vs China has less leverage than rest of EU vs Germany.
 
China and 14 other nations ready to sign RCEP, world’s largest trade deal, before change of leadership in US
  • The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is expected to be signed this weekend during video meetings hosted by Asean
  • In the absence of the US from trading blocs, China seeks opportunities to write regional trade rules, say observers

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Li Keqiang - Chinese Prime Minister

China is expected to sign a mega regional trade deal with 14 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region this weekend, wrapping up a major agreement before the next United States administration comes into office, Chinese officials said on Wednesday.


Leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are expected sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as they meet via teleconference on Sunday, according to Chinese officials.


“Up till now, all negotiations have been completed. We are working diligently on the legal reviews of all text in the agreement, and we hope that we would be able to sign the agreement at the leaders’ summit,” assistant minister of commerce Li Chenggang told a press briefing on Wednesday.


Li Chenggang, China’s assistant commerce minister. Photo: Handout
Li Chenggang, China’s assistant commerce minister. Photo: Handout

The signing of the agreement will be one aspect of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s attendance at the series of teleconference meetings hosted by Asean from Thursday to Sunday.


In forming what would be the world’s largest trade deal following eight years of negotiations, the 15 countries comprise close to one-third of the world’s population and global gross domestic product, dwarfing other regional trading blocs such as the European Union, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a rival trade bloc that went into effect in 2018 following the withdrawal in 2017 of the US under President Donald Trump.

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Chinese Cities

Regional trade observers have said the US’ absence from both RCEP and CPTPP has encouraged regional countries to look elsewhere for leadership. China has looked to RCEP as an opportunity to write regional trade rules and diversify its avenues of trade amid declining economic relations with the United States.

An expert who advises the Chinese government on trade said there was a renewed urgency for China to sign the trade deal before the next US administration came into office.

images - 2020-11-15T122813.161.jpeg

Chinese Port


“RCEP is about China’s long-term strategic interest and its relations with neighbouring countries. The Democratic Party [administration] under Joe Biden is likely to rejoin the CPTPP. If the US goes back to CPTPP and the RCEP negotiations are not handled well, that would provide incentive for a lot of countries to shift to CPTPP,” the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Negotiations for RCEP were launched in 2012 and have dragged on for years. India, Asia’s third-largest economy and a big consumer market, withdrew last year because of concerns about having a trade deficit with China. It raised questions whether the negotiations could be completed on time. There were also fears that Australia’s rapidly deteriorating diplomatic relations with China could hurt the progress of the multilateral trade deal.

During a trip to India in April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington had been in talks with its “friends”, many of which were members of RCEP – including India, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam – about restructuring the global supply chains in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.


At the Chinese government press conference on Wednesday, deputy foreign minister Luo Zhaohui hit out at the United States’ plan to contain China.


“The Indo-Pacific strategy proposed by some countries, including the Quad mechanism, is largely … a security and military grouping and has proved the return of the Cold War mentality, which is aimed at weakening Asean’s centrality. Both China and Asean should be on high alert about this trend.”

Wang Yong, director of the Centre for International Political Economy at Peking University, said RCEP could provide an alternative platform for economic cooperation for China and Australia despite their diplomatic spat.


“China and Australia still have common interests and based on that the two countries can still explore cooperation in the context of regional and multilateral framework,” he said.


“With China and Asian countries well placed for economic recovery after we have successfully contained the coronavirus pandemic, relations between China and its neighbouring countries will only grow closer,” Wang said.

“The axis of the world economy has shifted from transatlantic cooperation to transpacific cooperation.”

https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/dip...-other-nations-ready-sign-rcep-worlds-largest
 
Good news, VN is building so many new industrial Park for factories leaving from CN to VN.

CN manufacturing sector is dead due to high salary, trade war and no FTA wt EU and cant compete wt factories in VN, so CN soon have to buy even a cheap medical mask from VN cos CN labor cost will be too high to make med marks :cool:
 
Good news, VN is building so many new industrial Park for factories leaving from CN to VN.

CN manufacturing sector is dead due to high salary, trade war and no FTA wt EU and cant compete wt factories in VN, so CN soon have to buy even a cheap medical mask from VN cos CN labor cost will be too high to make med marks :cool:
tell the truth you got delusions and hallucinations don't you?
 
Good news, VN is building so many new industrial Park for factories leaving from CN to VN.

CN manufacturing sector is dead due to high salary, trade war and no FTA wt EU and cant compete wt factories in VN, so CN soon have to buy even a cheap medical mask from VN cos CN labor cost will be too high to make med marks :cool:
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Simple, other countries except China want India market open to them. While they all miscalculated. India want other countries open market, but India refused to do the same.
Inviting India delayed RCEP for at least 2 damn years, increased a lot of debates, and complexity. While India is not sincere at all.
This pissed off a lot of countries, such as Australia (milk, beef, other agriculture), New Zealand (milk beef), ASEAN (textile, labor intensive industries ), Japan (electronics, machinery), Korea (electronics).

India really sucks, leave the table at the last minute. Never invite India to any trade negotiation.

India can do nothing but screw thing up.
Having travelled and lived across a lot of Asia, I can very well attest to the negative impact to local populations of countries who sign such trade deals. Normally this means that the citizens of all nations other than China can no longer compete with Chinese sellers and service providers in their own home turf market and many cannot adapt to this disruptive change. All the mom and pop stores have to close down, most small businesses close down, retail is hardly profitable anymore and almost everything in e-commerce stores are serviced or operated by Chinese vendors. All the small nations are just opening their markets for cheaper Chinese alternatives at the cost of their native populations interests. It is better for India to grow slowly but comprehensively and protect the opportunities available to Indian citizens first. In the current scenario, India is still largely dependent on Chinese imports but there are a lot of Indian middle men who benefit from this trade.
 
If chinese don’t buy more our products I don’t see much benefits in this pact. Worse, they will use their economic power and flood our markets with Huawei phones and the likes.
 
That is right for India. But small ASEAN nations will need to onboard on the Chinese bandwagon to further material well being.

Having travelled and lived across a lot of Asia, I can very well attest to the negative impact to local populations of countries who sign such trade deals. Normally this means that the citizens of all nations other than China can no longer compete with Chinese sellers and service providers in their own home turf market and many cannot adapt to this disruptive change. All the mom and pop stores have to close down, most small businesses close down, retail is hardly profitable anymore and almost everything in e-commerce stores are serviced or operated by Chinese vendors. All the small nations are just opening their markets for cheaper Chinese alternatives at the cost of their native populations interests. It is better for India to grow slowly but comprehensively and protect the opportunities available to Indian citizens first. In the current scenario, India is still largely dependent on Chinese imports but there are a lot of Indian middle men who benefit from this trade.
 

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