At the 35th ASEAN Summit and related summits in Bangkok and Nonthaburi of Thailand, on November 4, according to the draft of ASEAN Leaders' Declaration, the signing of RCEP will be postponed to 2020.
Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told reporters that 16 countries have agreed to issue a joint RCEP statement and the remaining two countries are negotiating market access. He said India had agreed to make a joint statement, but not a detailed agreement. Jurin said RCEP ministers will try to finalize the deal by the end of the year, paving the way for it to be signed next year.
According to the draft, all member countries agreed to sign RCEP by 2020 in Vietnam - the next president of ASEAN.
RCEP - which could be signed next year - includes economies that account for 30% of global GDP: 10 ASEAN countries plus China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand - especially the United States. The population of the countries in this agreement alone accounts for over half of the world's population.
It can be said that this is a treaty that creates almost maximum conditions for Vietnam to satisfy its internal rules of origin to take advantage of tariff preferences. This makes a huge difference between RCEP and other free trade agreements. However, in the RCEP sector, there are also many direct competitors of Vietnam such as Thailand or China, ..
The deal was a new impetus when the US-China trade war broke out, with the IMF warning that global growth could fall to its lowest level in 10 years due to trade instability between the two most major economies in the world.
"We must once again face strong winds of trade protectionism," South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday. "We need to protect the free trade order ... and get the global economy back on track."
When completed, RCEP will create a large free trade area, including many of Vietnam's leading export partners.
>>> Bloomberg: If Mr. Trump imposes a 25% tax on Vietnamese goods as they do China, the growth may decrease by 1%.
