Update on Negotiations for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

15 Asst Prof Mahdev Mohan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) what is the updated status on negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, in particular, the headway made on (i) improving the liberalisation of goods, services and investment beyond the existing ASEAN+1 Free Trade Agreements (and other agreements) among the participating countries; (ii) reducing non-tariff regulatory barriers to ease the flow of trade and investment; and (iii) the inclusion of a dispute settlement mechanism that can provide an effective and transparent process for consultations and dispute resolution.

The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Dr Koh Poh Koon) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade)): The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a 16-party free trade agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation between the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and the six ASEAN FTA Partners, that is, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia. Accounting for almost half of the world's population and a third of the world's gross domestic product, the RCEP is envisaged to be a modern, comprehensive, high quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement that will deepen ASEAN's economic integration with the region.

Since the launch of RCEP negotiations in November 2012, there have been 20 formal negotiating rounds and eight RCEP Ministerial Meetings. To date, two chapters have been concluded and they are: the Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Chapters.

The RCEP is reaching a critical juncture of negotiations. The negotiators are engaging extensively on challenging and complex policy matters in market access and rules. Trade Ministers of RCEP countries have provided guidance to the process. In September 2017, RCEP Ministers discussed and endorsed a guidance document, the Key Elements for Significant Outcomes by End of 2017. This document directs negotiators to focus on specific outcomes across the Chapters. The RCEP Ministers and Leaders will next review the progress of negotiations at the sidelines of the 31st ASEAN Summit to be held next week.

We have engaged extensively on market access negotiations. RCEP Parties have tabled the second revised offers across Goods, Services and Investments. The process takes time but it leads to incremental improvements at each iteration. For Investment, RCEP Parties are continuing with pluri-lateral engagements to discuss their Reservation Lists with a view to further improvements.

Apart from market access and investment, RCEP Parties are committed to improving the regional business environment through the reduction of non-tariff barriers and non-tariff measures to facilitate trade and investment flows across RCEP countries. Regular consultations with the business community are held at the sidelines of each Negotiating Round and, at the national level, by individual RCEP Parties with their respective stakeholders to identify non-tariff measures to be addressed in the RCEP agreement.

The RCEP will also include a dispute settlement mechanism to provide an effective, efficient and transparent process for consultations and settlement of disputes. Negotiations are still on-going on this, with officials working through the basis and process for initiating dispute resolution.

While there is steady progress in the negotiations, finding a landing zone that is acceptable and agreeable to all RCEP Parties on the numerous issues remains a gradual and complex process. Even though ASEAN and our corresponding FTA Partners have existing ASEAN+1 FTAs to form a starting basis for the negotiations, it is much more challenging for ASEAN FTA Partners who do not already have an FTA with each other to arrive at a common landing zone.

Singapore will do our part to facilitate the process where possible, but the final positions between third countries are, ultimately, dependent on their own calculations.

In taking negotiations forward, the task remains for RCEP partners to find a balance between achieving a high level of ambition and accommodating the specific sensitivities of individual RCEP partners. Singapore remains committed to work closely with our RCEP counterparts to bring the agreement to fruition.