RCEP emerges as anchor for free trade amid rising protectionism
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has emerged as an important anchor for global free trade, injecting momentum into the world economy amid rising protectionism and geopolitical uncertainties, according to sources from the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) conference.
The RCEP has become a major driving force and institutional pathway for economic globalization, further opening up the regional market and advancing regional liberalization, said Kuang Xianming, deputy head of the China Institute for Reform and Development.
Three years after its implementation, the trade pact has delivered initial benefits, with the total trade value within the region expanding 3 percent year on year in 2024, a significant figure given the headwinds facing global trade, Kuang said.
Under the agreement, the RCEP region has become the most dynamic hub for cross-border capital flows, according to Kuang. In 2023, the RCEP region attracted 35 percent of global foreign direct investment and contributed 30 percent of global outbound investment, he added.
The RCEP, the world’s largest free trade deal to date, covers 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its five free trade agreement partners, namely China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
The RCEP, as a major achievement of Asian economic integration, has injected new vitality into the member economies, bringing certainty into the uncertain global economy and trade landscape, according to a report released at the BFA.
The trade pact has integrated the free trade agreement arrangements within the region, optimized the configuration of economic resources, and demonstrated the determination of Asian economies to promote open cooperation, the report said.
Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20250326/f0b5d72d553c4e4d8bd812143dccbc9c/c.html
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
