The Reqional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement

Author Tiger7253  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikipedia

 

Jane Lambert

In the week in which Michel Barnier and David Frost have held final negotiations, the governments of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam signed an Agreement for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on the 15 Nov 2020. The combined population of the contracting parties is 2.3 billion and their combined GDP is US$26.3 trillion. Larger than the United States-Mexico-Canada, the European Union and Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

The instrument is massive consisting of a Preamble, 20 Chapters and over 18 Annexes. Annex I contains Schedules of  Tariff Commitments for each country, Annex II Schedules of Specific Commitments for Services, Annex III Schedules of Reservations and Non-Conforming Measures for Services and Investment and Annex IV Schedules of Specific Commitments on Temporary Movement of Natural Persons.

The Chapters cover the following:

• Initial Provisions and General Definitions 
• Trade in Goods 
• Rules of Origin incorporating Annex 3A. Product Specific Rules and Annex 3B. Minimum Information Requirements 
• Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation incorporating Annex 4A. Period of Time to Implement the Commitments 
• Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 
• Standards, Technical Regulations, and Conformity Assessment Procedures 
• Trade Remedies incorporating Annex 7A: Practices Relating to Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings
• Trade in Services incorporating Annex 8A: Financial Services, Annex 8B: Telecommunication Services and Annex 8C: Professional Services 
• Temporary Movement of Natural Persons 
• Investment incorporating Annex 10A: Customary International Law and Annex 10B: Expropriation 
• Intellectual Property incorporating Annex 11A: Party-Specific Transition Periods and Annex 11B: List of Technical Assistance Requests
• Electronic Commerce 
• Competition [PDF 75 KB] incorporating Annex 13A: Application of Article 13.3 (Appropriate Measures against Anti-Competitive Activities) and Article 13.4 (Cooperation) to Brunei Darussalam, Annex 13B: Application of Article 13.3 (Appropriate Measures against Anti-Competitive Activities) and Article 13.4 (Cooperation) to Cambodia, Annex 13C: Application of Article 13.3 (Appropriate Measures against Anti-Competitive Activities) and Article 13.4 (Cooperation) to Lao PDR and Annex 13D: Application of Article 13.3 (Appropriate Measures against Anti-Competitive Activities) and Article 13.4 (Cooperation) to Myanmar 
• Small and Medium Enterprises 
• Economic and Technical Cooperation 
• Government Procurement incorporating Annex 16A: Paper or Electronic Means Utilised by Parties for the Publication of Transparency Information 
• General Provisions and Exceptions 
• Institutional Provisions incorporating Annex 18A: Functions of the Subsidiary Bodies of the RCEP Joint Committee 
• Dispute Settlement. and
• Final Provisions.

I shall explore some of these chapters in future articles.  

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the agreement is welcome to call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during British office hours or send me a message through my contact page.