The signing of the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) will enable 10 ASEAN countries and five countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to jointly promote trade and investment, and closely connect China’s textile fabrics with garment manufacturing factories in Southeast Asia.

RCEP will progressively lower tariffs across many areas in the coming years. Tariffs on most products from the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand will gradually drop to 0 per cent in addition to the above six countries.

According to estimates by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, assuming the continuation of the Sino-US trade friction, China’s accession to RCEP will bring an additional USD 100 billion in real national income growth in 2030, thereby offsetting about 30 per cent of the negative impact of the trade friction.

Although the pandemic that currently affects the global economy this year has not improved well and the overseas economy has recovered slowly, with the signing of the RCEP agreement, market participants still have certain expectations for the first half of next year.