China pushing for world’s largest regional trade deal without US, hailing ‘momentum’ with Asian partners

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) involves the 10 Asean nations as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India

Talks are ongoing in Zhengzhou, and will continue into next week when Chinese and American trade negotiators will resume their talks in Shanghai

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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership involves the 10 Asean nations of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:35pm, 26 Jul 2019Updated: 10:32am, 29 Jul 2019

China is pushing hard to conclude the world’s largest regional trade agreement, hailed as “the most important free trade deal in East Asia”, before the end of 2019 by rallying delegates from 16 countries that crucially does not include the United States.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) involves the 10 Asean nations of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos, as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.

China is a key promoter of the partnership, which is often seen as a China-led response to the now defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) put forward by the US. Beijing officially insists that it is a deal led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and that China is only playing a supporting role in the plan which mainly focuses on cutting tariffs and improving market access for services and investment across the region.

Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, in a speech to trade delegates on Friday in central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, said RCEP is “the most important free trade deal in East Asia”.

China’s Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen. Photo: Simon Song

He added that all participants should “take full advantage of the good momentum and accelerating progress at the moment” to conclude a deal by the end of the year, according to a statement released by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

The upbeat tone from Wang came a day after Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said that RCEP talks had achieved “much positive progress” this year and “the possibility of completing a draft text [in 2019] has increased significantly”.