{"id":9372,"date":"2022-01-30T07:30:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T07:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=9372"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:45:18","slug":"why-the-regional-comprehensive-economic-partnership-is-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/why-the-regional-comprehensive-economic-partnership-is-a-big-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is such a big deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest trade bloc in history, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, provides its member states with a tariff-free route into the China market. However, as Joe Cash<\/strong> explains, China\u2019s membership brings challenges as well as opportunities<\/span><\/h2>\n

Just after the stroke of midnight on New Year\u2019s Eve, trade negotiators in Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam likely raised a second toast congratulating themselves on a job well done in getting the biggest trade bloc in history up and running. It has been a long and hard slog. Negotiations took close to a decade, and the membership of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement does not, at first sight, give the appearance of an easy alliance. <\/span><\/p>\n

The new bloc consists of a mixture of developed and developing states, whose economic policies run the full length of the spectrum, from free trade stalwarts such as Japan and New Zealand, to countries in which \u2018economic planner\u2019 is a much sought-after position in the civil service. What unites them is a common desire to move the centre of gravity in global trade even further eastward.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"launchpad<\/a><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Department for International Trade (DIT) has shown a keen interest in the bloc. While the trade deals that the UK has agreed with Australia, Japan and New Zealand probably provide Britain\u2019s trade negotiators with a sufficiently robust foot in the proverbial door, the Pitcairn Islands \u2013 a British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean of relative unimportance pre-Brexit \u2013 provide further cause for an application for membership from Whitehall to receive the current RCEP members\u2019 consideration. Although likely, a formal application from Britain might take a while: despite its size, the RCEP is not the big prize for the UK in the Asia-Pacific region. That award goes to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership<\/a> (CPTPP) \u2013 the poster child of liberal, free trade. But that does little to diminish the impact the RCEP will have on Asia-Pacific trade. The RCEP is big. That is its draw.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The RCEP is also the only trade bloc to contain China, which goes a long way toward explaining why it is quite so big. China\u2019s membership of the RCEP presents opportunities and challenges for the UK. On the one hand, by joining the RCEP, UK companies would gain tariff-free access to the China market. On the other, the UK would have to agree to a pre-determined set of rules that would give China tariff-free access to its market. For many disparate reasons, that is a tough call to make.<\/span><\/p>\n