Asean economic ministers are committed to wrapping up talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by the end of this year, despite sluggish global economic prospects.
Yesterday, Chutima Bunyapra-phasara, the acting commerce minister, said at the first day of two-day Asean Economic Ministers' Retreat held in Phuket, that as Asean chair Thailand will try to convince the dialogue partners to conclude the regional trade talks by the end of 2019.
Chutima: Sticking points remain
"The RCEP talks appear difficult, partially because of political changes and elections in five dialogue partners -- India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Australia," said Ms Chutima. "But Thailand pledges to convince all members to conclude market access issues at the Trade Negotiating Committee meeting in July. The next steps are proposing the partnership to the Asean Economic Ministers' Meeting in Australia in August, then announcing the RCEP conclusion at the Asean summit in Thailand in November."
RCEP was launched in November 2012 with the aim of establishing deeper economic cooperation among the 10 Asean members and six dialogue partners (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand).
The members have already settled talks on market access for goods and services for about 80% of total items and values.
She said a major obstacle in the talks is a distinctive idea on the rule of origins and an absence of bilateral free trade agreements among some dialogue partners such as China and India as well as China and Japan.
Other discussions centre on differences in investment protection, e-commerce, trade competition law, as partners have varying laws.
"RCEP is important for this region because of the uncertainty of the world economy. The partnership will be an important strategy to drive members' GDP growth and attract investments to Asean," Ms Chutima said. "If the pact can be concluded this year, it will be the biggest free trade agreement in the world."
Signatory countries to RCEP have a combined population of about 3.56 billion, with trade volume of more than US$10.3 trillion (328 trillion baht), or 29% of the world's trade.
Thailand's trade volume with RCEP members amounted to $290 billion in 2018 or 59.7% of its total trade.