admin A mammoth trade deal will be signed by all the ten members of ASEAN along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. This trade deal that is due to be signed on this very weekend has been in the making for more than a decade now.
The members of this trade deal account for more than a third of the world population and nearly 29% of the global gross domestic produce (GDP). This trade zone will now be larger than that of the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement and the European Union.
Till last year, India was also a part of the negotiations of this trade deal but backup out because of tariff concerns that had the potential to disrupt the local producers. This deal will be finalised and signed over online platforms given the spread of the pandemic.
This deal will be called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and it is expected that with its coming it will eliminate a range of tariffs levied on imports as well as exports.
Not only this, it will also include provisions on intellectual property, professional services, e-commerce and so on. But out of everything else on the table the “rules of origin” which are going to define where a product has originated from will have the largest impact.
Many countries that are a part of this trade deal had already signed Free Trade Agreements with one another but they had their own limitations and hence could not fulfil all the requirements that were posed by the countries and at the same time it is believed that FTA’s were very complicated and the RCEP will provide a relief to these countries.
This trade deal will benefit everyone largely as it will regard each nation with equality that will also provide an added incentive to look within the said region for any form of supplies. This trade deal will also bring together an entirely new plethora of countries who otherwise have gravely strained diplomatic ties with one another, a notable example of the same being China and Japan.
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