The 10 ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, officially signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreem

On November 15, the fourth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Leaders’ Meeting was held via video link and was chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam, which holds the rotating chair of ASEAN. The 10 ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, formally signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). , this move marks the formal conclusion of the world's largest free trade agreement today.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the Fourth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Leaders’ Meeting at the Great Hall of the People on the morning of November 15. Li Keqiang said in his speech that today is a landmark day, and the leaders of our 15 countries will jointly witness the signing of RCEP. As the free trade area with the largest participating population, the most diverse membership structure and the greatest development potential in the world, this is not only a landmark achievement of East Asia regional cooperation, but also a victory for multilateralism and free trade. RCEP will achieve a high level of openness in goods trade, service trade and investment among countries in the region, greatly enhance the level of regional trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and enhance regional attractiveness and competitiveness. It will not only effectively promote the overall recovery process of the regional economy, but will also Promoting regional development and prosperity and adding new momentum will also become an important engine for global growth.

Li Keqiang pointed out that the current COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading around the world, the world economy is in severe recession, international trade and investment are shrinking, and protectionism and unilateralism are intensifying. After 8 years of negotiations, RCEP was signed under the current background, allowing people to see light and hope in the gloom, showing that multilateralism and free trade are the road and the right path, and still represent the right direction for the world economy and mankind; allowing people to face challenges We should choose unity and cooperation instead of conflict and confrontation. We should choose to help each other and work together in times of difficulty instead of beggar-thy-neighbor and watching from the other side. Adhering to open cooperation is the only way to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results for all countries. The road ahead will not always be smooth. As long as we strengthen our confidence and work together, we will be able to create a better future for East Asia and even mankind.

Li Keqiang emphasized that during the RCEP negotiation process, ASEAN countries played an important leading role and made indispensable contributions. China will continue to firmly support ASEAN in playing its central role and promoting the implementation of RCEP follow-up work. It is hoped that all parties will complete the ratification procedures of their respective domestic agreements as soon as possible so that the agreements can take effect as soon as possible and benefit enterprises and people of various countries as soon as possible. Efforts should be made to coordinate and make specific implementation arrangements for tariff concessions, origin standards, facilitation measures and related rules to ensure the smooth implementation of the agreement. Work together to build RCEP into the main platform for regional economic and trade cooperation, adhere to openness and inclusiveness, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, and benefit people of all countries.

After the meeting, Li Keqiang and leaders of various countries attended and witnessed the RCEP signing ceremony. Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan signed the agreement on behalf of China.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered a speech at the RCEP Summit via video, strongly affirming the effects of the agreement. He pointed out that at a time when multilateralism is losing its edge and global growth is slowing down, RCEP is a major step for the world.

RCEP was initiated by the 10 ASEAN countries in 2012. It is a regional free trade agreement centered on developing economies. It is the "golden key" for member states to open their markets to each other and implement regional economic integration. According to the Vietnam News Agency, RCEP is considered the world’s largest free trade agreement because it covers 2.2 billion people, accounting for about 30% of the world’s total population. The GDP of the 15 member countries in 2019 reached US$25.6 trillion. , accounting for 29.3% of the global economic total, and intra-regional trade volume is 10.4 trillion US dollars, accounting for 27.4% of the global trade total.

There are currently 15 countries participating in this agreement. Since these 15 member countries span two continents, the northern and southern hemispheres, and include both developed economies and underdeveloped countries, there are differences in the policies of various countries in the fields of investment, competition, and intellectual property rights. The huge difference has also brought considerable difficulty to the RCEP negotiations.

It is understood that the scope of RCEP negotiations covers more than ten fields such as small and medium-sized enterprises, investment, economic and technological cooperation, goods and service trade, etc., focusing on reducing or reducing tariffs on goods trade and service trade, and lowering market access thresholds. Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, said frankly that “RCEP negotiations are one of the most complex trade negotiations.”

Initially, the ten ASEAN countries invited six dialogue partner countries: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India. On November 3, 2019, after seven years of negotiations, RCEP finally achieved a breakthrough in Bangkok, Thailand. 15 member states, including China, concluded all text negotiations and virtually all market access negotiations, and are committed to ensuring Agreement signed in 2020.

However, Indian Prime Minister Modi said on November 4, 2019 that India decided not to sign RCEP due to differences on tariffs, trade deficits with other countries and non-tariff barriers.

Observers pointed out that the priority of early tariff concessions among RCEP member countries depends on the interests of the lowest-income countries in ASEAN. There are already many free trade agreements based on the 10 ASEAN countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and RCEP is a collective upgrade of existing agreements. RCEP aims to establish a free trade agreement with a unified market of 15 countries by cutting tariffs and non-tariff barriers, which will help reduce the operating costs of import and export enterprises and reduce operational uncertainty risks.

All participating countries welcome the prospect of this trade agreement. However, Taiwan, once one of the Four Asian Tigers, is absent from the world's largest economic circle.

Because of being excluded, Taiwan society has many cold eyes, negative interpretations of this large-scale regional economic integration, and even some pessimistic voices. The Democratic Progressive Party authorities have deliberately downplayed the possible impact of RCEP, intending to direct public attention to the "Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)" and the more distant other side of the Pacific, and plan to hold a "Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership" on November 20. Taiwan-U.S. Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue.”

However, RCEP members are all important trading partners of Taiwan, accounting for more than 70% of Taiwan’s exports. After the signing of RCEP, member countries will enjoy lower tariff rates or even zero tariffs. If the Taiwan region is excluded, whether it is exports or investments, it will inevitably be affected, and the problem of being marginalized in international economic and trade will become more serious and worsened.

On November 12, Taiwan’s China Times published an article saying, “The positive effect of the ‘U.S.-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue’ on Taiwan may be uncertain or time-consuming because of Trump’s ‘America First’ policy. Under the government's thinking, it is not easy for Taiwan to obtain benefits easily. However, the impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement on Taiwan is clear and real-time, because Taiwan's exclusion will definitely have a "trade diversion" exclusion effect. Therefore, the net impact of these two events on Taiwan on the same day is absolutely negative. How to minimize the negative impact of RCEP and maximize the benefits of the US-Taiwan Economic Dialogue is what the current government must face. "Hong Kong's China Review News Agency also commented, "When Taiwan pursues economic development and responds to global challenges, it seems that it has adopted a strategy of abandoning the near and looking for the distant. The direction is completely wrong: not only can the distant water (the United States) not be saved, Taiwan has no intention of helping Taiwan put out the fire, but it turns a blind eye to, or even deliberately alienates, the largest market and source of economic power (the mainland) that is just around the corner. Can the economic future be so worrying? "

In the era of economic globalization, RCEP is part of the geopolitical and economic competition and cooperation layout. If Taiwan fails to properly handle cross-strait relations, the possibility of joining RCEP in the future is almost zero. With the advent of East Asia's economic integration, Taiwan will have no choice but to survive in cracks, and its situation will become even more difficult.