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After 8 years, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region negotiated they finally signed the world’s largest free trade agreement at a virtual conference in Hanoi, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Fuq announced, cited by DPA.
“I am very pleased that, after 8 years of difficult negotiations, today we have concluded negotiations on Regional Integral Economic Association (RCEP) and we officially signed during the 37th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Summit ”, said the Prime Minister of the Forum.
The trade agreement covers 2.2 billion people and 29% of the world economy.
The biggest trade deal involves 10 ASEAN member states (Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei) and Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
Once the RCEP goes into effect, lower tariffs, establish common trade rules, and ease supply chains. The agreement covers everything: commerce, services, investment, electronic commerce, telecommunications and copyright.
According to experts, the agreement will fundamentally change economic, strategic and institutional architecture in the region, which will be important for the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang announced that the signing of the agreement is a victory for the world economy.
“The signing of the RCEP is not only a remarkable achievement of regional cooperation in East Asia, but also a victory for multilateralism and free trade,” Li Keqiang said during a speech at the forum.
China is expected to be great beneficiary of the transaction, as potentially you can add $ 85 billion to GDP.
The Australian government will use the trade pact as opportunity to strengthen relations with China, which have hardened in recent months.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the signing of the document was win for Australian farmers and the labor market. Canberra is committed to ratifying the agreement as soon as possible.
In 2019, India abandoned the talks because it did not want to opens Indian markets, as stated in the agreement.
The leaders of ASEAN member states have announced that they intend to expand trade with India, although it does not participate in the agreement.
They have been held since 2012 31 rounds of negotiations and 18 ministerial meetings before the agreement is concluded. The self-imposed term has expired six times.
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