Space Pawdyssey

Among the 15 countries participating in the global regional economic partnership are the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and five of their partners in free trade agreements – Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea. India and the United States were supposed to be members of the RCEP and CPTPP, but withdrew under the Modi and Trump administration. With the agreements now configured (see Figure 1), they strongly promote intra-Asian integration around China and Japan. This is partly the result of American policy. The United States needs to rebalance its economic and security strategies to promote not only its economic interests, but also its security objectives. The main effect of the RCEP is to have pooled the various free trade agreements concluded by ASEAN with the other five Asia-Pacific countries in a single framework. It covers trade in goods, but contributes little to the removal of non-tariff barriers. Most services are excluded, but also agriculture, which is a sensitive sector. This is a more “flat” agreement than the existing free trade agreements between the EU and the region. And that cannot be compared to our own internal market. But that was never the case. The start of the RCEP negotiations took place with great fanfare, given the overlap between the two agreements and the economic heavyweights that were in one process, but not in the other. The United States was then in the TPP, while China and India were the founding members of the RCEP.

Australia, Japan and New Zealand participated, as did some of the ASEAN member states. None of the South American countries that participated in the TPP were part of the RCEP. The impact of the RCEP is impressive, even if the agreement is not as strict as the CPTPP. It stimulates supply chains throughout the region, as well as political sensitivities. Its intellectual property rules have little effect on what many members have, and the agreement says nothing at all about labour, the environment or state-owned enterprises – all key chapters of the CPTPP. However, ASEAN-focused trade agreements tend to improve over time. The RCEP is not as comprehensive as the comprehensive and progressive agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another free trade agreement in the region that encompasses some of the same countries. [9] The RCEP “does not establish uniform employment and environmental standards or require countries to open services and other vulnerable areas of their economies.” [16] The agreement aims to reduce tariffs and bureaucracy.