November set for RCEP conclusion

Asean and six dialogue partners have vowed to wrap up talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by this November as planned.

Auramon Supthaweethum, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said trade ministers from 16 countries due to meet on Sept 7-8 in Bangkok will try their best to resolve their differences so the RCEP talks can be concluded during the Asean summit meeting in November.

"The dialogue partners have finished 70% of the talks, completing negotiations on seven of the 20 RCEP chapters," Mrs Auramon.

"We are negotiating the remaining 13 chapters on foreign investment, e-commerce and intellectual property, and aim to finish the talks within this year, as announced by Asean leaders. The pact is expected to become effective by late 2020 at the latest."

She said before the RCEP ministerial meeting in September, senior economic officials of RCEP signatories will have a meeting on Aug 19-26 in Indonesia to discuss contentious issues.

If necessary, RCEP ministers will hold inter-sessional ministerial meetings before the RCEP leader summit in November, said Mrs Auramon.

The RCEP was launched in November 2012, with the goal of deeper economic cooperation between Asean and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand.

Once the RCEP is finalised, the group will form a major trading bloc that accounts for one-third of the world's GDP.

Mrs Auramon said of the 13 priority economic deliverables under Thailand's Asean Chairmanship in 2019, the Asean economic ministers' (AEM) meeting will endorse four issues: the Asean digital integration framework action plan 2019-25; the guideline on skilled labour/professional services that was developed in response to the fourth industrial revolution; the Asean declaration on industrial transformation to Industry 4.0; and a guideline on digitalisation for Asean micro-enterprises.

At the AEM meeting, two agreements are scheduled to be signed: the Asean mutual recognition arrangement on type approval for automotive products and the improvement of the Asean Protocol on Enhanced Dispute Settlement Mechanism.

Source: BangKok Post