ISDS Case Map
RCEP
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Interim Joint Committee is to hold a virtual meeting on 30 January 2021 and will be the first joint committee meeting since the formal signing of the RCEP agreement.
As its economy maintains recovery momentum, the country aims to attract foreign investors this year by encouraging investment in more industries, shortening negative lists for foreign investment, and further expanding the free-trade network.
A recently signed 15-country trade deal may not significantly benefit the Philippine economy and instead expose its lack of competitiveness in manufacturing, a senior equities research executive for Regis Partners said.
If both the US and China join the CPTPP, and it becomes the world's largest free trade agreement, then the RCEP would recede in significance. CPTPP, comprising both the US and China, sensing more economic benefits in committing to the RCEP.
China will complete the necessary domestic approval procedures for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement within six months, the Ministry of Commerce said.
China will step up efforts to expand its free trade area network with trading partners across the world to enlarge its “circle of friends”, while eliminating more tariffs on goods and broadening market access for services trade and investment, according to commerce minister Wang Wentao.
RCEP will only deepen inequalities that already exist and were exacerbated further by the pandemic. It will further undermine the livelihoods of farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples and rural women, and threaten jobs for workers.
South Korea formally inked a comprehensive trade deal with Indonesia, paving the way for local exporters to penetrate deeper into the Southeast Asian market.
South Korea and Japan look set to be the biggest winners in the Asian oil and chemicals marketplace as the world’s largest regional free-trade agreement paves the way for a gradual reduction in tariffs.
