ASEAN member-states will try to complete the text of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)—the counterpart of the US-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership—this year at the occasion of the Philippines’s hosting of the bloc’s meeting, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said on Thursday.
Lopez added that this will be the focus of Asean leaders when they convene in Manila in April.
“The main initiative we’ll try to push in the Asean leaders’ meeting is concluding the RCEP,” Lopez told reporters on Thursday.
At a meeting of Asean trade ministers last November, the trade chief disclosed that options have been “narrowed” in terms of negotiating a common set of numbers in terms of services and goods to be included in the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA).
The RCEP is a megatrade deal aiming to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual-property rights.
The 16 countries (Asean nations, plus countries they’ve already concluded FTAs with) involved in the RCEP account for over a quarter of the world’s economy, estimated to be more than $75 trillion.
According to a joint statement released after the meeting, the 16 countries have agreed to negotiate the RCEP as a single undertaking, instead of a piecemeal approach, to ensure both goods and services will be prioritized, upon the request of India.