Iman Pambagyo, Indonesian Trade Ministry’s director general for international trade negotiations. (Photo: alfijakarta.com)Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade is expecting that the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a landmark trade deal between ASEANcountries and six major economies, will be signed in November 2020.
The Trade Ministry’sdirector general for international trade negotiations, Iman Pambagyo, said the finalisation of the pact, including dealing with technicalities liketranslation, will happen in the first quarter of next year.
It is hopeful that the finalisation process will be done for the agreementto be inked by ministers in November next year, followed by the ratification ineach country, Iman told a press conference earlier this week.
The RCEP Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) will report results of thenegotiation to ministers of participating countries in early November this year,he said.
The RCEP is a free trade agreement between theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its six free trade agreementpartners – China, Japan, India, theRepublic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Negotiations on the pact began in2012 and were initially expected to be concluded two years later. However, theconclusion has been delayed for many times.
Trade negotiators from the 16 countries have locked hornsover issues concerning the pact's 20 chapters for several years. Six remainingchapters have yet to be agreed on, including trade competition rules, andmeasures to mitigate the negative side-impacts of RCEP.
Once signed, the agreement will create the largest free trade area in theworld, housing about 3.5 billion people and accounting for 30 percent of globalGDP./.
VNA
