RCEP--The free trade zone with the world's largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, and the most potential for development will officially set sail.

RCEP has a total of 15 member states, including 5 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and 10 ASEAN countries. At present, 6 ASEAN member states and 4 non-ASEAN member states have formally submitted the approval letter, which has reached the threshold for the agreement to enter into force. According to the agreement, RCEP will take effect on January 1, 2022 for the 10 countries that have formally submitted their approval documents.

Customs statistics show that in the first 11 months of this year, the total value of China's imports and exports to the other 14 RCEP member states was 10.96 trillion yuan, accounting for 31% of my country's total foreign trade value during the same period.

RCEP is conducive to expanding the export of our country's superior products. For example, China and Japan have reached a free trade arrangement for the first time. The two sides have significantly reduced tariffs in various fields such as machinery and equipment, electronic information, chemicals, light industry and textiles. In particular, next year, 57% of my country’s exports to Japan will be implemented immediately. Zero tariffs have an obvious promotion effect on trade.

RCEP’s rules of origin accumulation have greatly lowered the threshold for commodity benefits, and will encourage producers to use more of the original materials in the region, which will help the region to form a tighter and more resilient industrial chain supply chain.

RCEP is not only the largest free trade agreement in the world, but also a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreement.

Its comprehensiveness is embodied in that the agreement not only covers trade in goods, but also covers market access such as service trade and investment, economic and technological cooperation, intellectual property rights, e-commerce and other fields.

After the RCEP takes effect, the openness of goods, services, and investment commitments are superimposed, the facilitation of trade and investment is guaranteed by the system, the industrial chain and supply chain are expected to be more integrated, and regional investment is expected to be more active.