Japan latest nation to approve RCEP

TOKYO－Japan's upper house of parliament on Wednesday approved the world's largest free-trade deal, which comprises 15 Asia-Pacific countries including China. The House of Representatives, the lower house of the legislature, gave its approval earlier this month.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, will create a massive free-trade zone covering roughly 30 percent of the world's gross domestic product, trade and population.

For Japan, it will be the first trade deal that comprises both China, its largest trading partner, and South Korea, its third-largest trading partner.

The deal was signed by China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in November 2020.

The pact will enter into force 60 days after it is ratified by six of the ASEAN members and three non-ASEAN countries.

Before Japan's approval, China, Singapore and Thailand had completed procedures for ratification.

China, the world's second-largest economy, completed those procedures on April 15, and approved the ratification of the RCEP agreement on March 22, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Singapore, for its part, ratified the agreement on April 9, and the Thai parliament approved it on Feb 11, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said.

China's Commerce Ministry, in addition, has said that all RCEP signatories have expressed their intentions and will strive to complete the ratification process within the year so as to see its enactment by Jan 1 next year.

Once in effect, the deal will eliminate tariffs on as much as 90 percent of goods traded between its signatories over the next 20 years.

Standardized rules

The deal will also standardize rules on investment and intellectual property to promote free trade among the participating nations.

As for Japan, the government said on March 19 that the RCEP accord will boost the country's GDP by 2.7 percent.

In the country's first publicized estimate on the impact of the trade deal, the government also expected some 570,000 jobs to be created.

ASEAN, which contributes most of the members of the RCEP, comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Xinhua