The meeting between the 10 members of ASEAN and their sixpartners of India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia andChina, was held on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting(AEM 51).
At the ministerial meeting, ministers put forward orientationsand instructions for delegations in the upcoming round of talks.
Notably, in preparation for ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020,Vietnam will host the 28th round of RCEP talks in the central city of Da Nangfrom September 19 to 27, which will be the last one prior to the ASEAN summitlater this year.
After 27 formal sessions and many midterm ones of RCEP talks,the countries have reached conclusion on the Chapters on Economic and TechnicalCooperation, Small and Medium Enterprises, Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation,and Government Procurement, among others.
To date, the countries have narrowed gap in their viewpointsin chapters on trade in goods, trade remedies, trade in services, trade infinancial, investment and intellectual property.
From the start of 2019, ASEAN countries and partners havelaunched measures to address bottlenecks in the negotiations, towards the finalisationof RCEP talks at the end of the year as required by their leaders at the 2ndRCEP summit in Singapore in 2018.
RCEP was initiated in November2012, aiming to establish an economic platform between the 10 ASEAN memberstates and their six partners, focusing on trade in goods, services andinvestment.
If signed, the deal will create the world’slargest free trade area with a nearly 3.5 billion population, accounting for 30percent of the world’s gross domestic product, much bigger than theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).-VNA