Illustrative image. (Photo: AFP/VNA)Singapore (VNA) – The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) , the world’slargest trade pact, officially came into effect on January 1.
The pact willprovide a boost to trade and business ties between Singapore and the RCEPparties, said Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong in apress release published on December 31.
He said thatmany Singaporean businesses indicated that they were keen to utilise the RCEP agreement when it enters into force.
The entryinto force of the agreementwill open up opportunities to catalyze the expansion of regional trade andinvestment much needed for economic recovery amid COVID-19, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) DatoLim Jock Hoi said in a recent interview.
Lim notedthat RCEP reinforces regional economic integration by expanding commonaccumulative rules of origin, simplified customs procedures, tradefacilitation, and coherent trade rules that provide greater transparency,fairness, and predictability for businesses.
For theAsia-Pacific region, RCEP is seen as an important step towards enhancedregional integration and a new impetus for free trade and multilateralism amid many uncertainties in the world.
Signed inNovember 2020, RCEP brings together 10 ASEAN member states, along with China,Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, covering 30 percent of theglobal gross domestic product (GDP) worth 26.2 trillion USD.
RCEP will form a market with 2.2 billion consumers, and become thelargest free trade area in the world in terms of population. It will eliminate tariffs on asmuch as 92 percent of goods traded between its signatories eventually, expandmarket access for investment, harmonise rules and regulations, and strengthenthe supply chains within the massive free trade zone.
RCEP isdesigned to cut costs and time for businesses to export goods to any of thesignatories to the agreement without having to meet separate requirements ofeach country./.
