As per ASEAN Japan Center (AJC) study released in March, ‘ASEAN global value chain and its relationship with RCEP: Impact of the RCEP on ASEAN integration’, the role of ASEAN in RCEP GVCs was smaller than GVCs and ASEAN connectivity, was also smaller. While ASEAN produced many products, these did not necessarily become inputs in exports of non-ASEAN RCEP members.

As per a Manila Times report, the study showed while the automotive and electronic GVCs were much stronger in RCEP due to the participation of China, Japan and South Korea. This offered ASEAN GVCs more opportunities in these industries to expand into non-ASEAN RCEP member states. The study says, ASEAN members mainly produced apparel that were finally exported. They were not intermediate producers of textiles — and were not much integrated into the next stage of production.

RCEP boosted exports by $42 billion and FDI by $900 million in the current value. These numbers corresponded to 1.8 per cent and 0.3 per cent of current exports and FDI flows.