Regional Comprehensive Economic Co operation

   
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a FTA negotiation that has been developed among 16 countries: the 10 members of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) and the six countries with which ASEAN has existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) – Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand. In relation to RCEP these six non-ASEAN countries are known as the ASEAN Free Trade Partners (AFPs).
The participants in the RCEP FTA negotiations have a total population of over 3 billion people and a trade share estimated at around 27 per cent of global trade (based on 2012 WTO figures), covering GDP of around $US21 trillion (2013 IMF figures).
RCEP countries account for 60 per cent of New Zealand’s goods exports (2013 figures).

Background

RCEP negotiations were launched by the Leaders of the 16 participating countries in the margins of the East Asia Summit on 20 November 2012. Leaders announced that RCEP would be “a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement establishing an open trade and investment environment in the region to facilitate the expansion of regional trade and investment and contribute to global economic growth and development”. See here for the Leaders’ Statement launching the negotiations. 
The participants have developed  for the negotiations. These were approved by Economic Ministers on 30 August 2012 and endorsed by Leaders and provide a roadmap for negotiators.
RCEP is a significant step in the evolution of trade policy frameworks in East Asia over the past decade.  RCEP’s history reaches back some 10 years, starting as a study process for an FTA between ASEAN, China, Japan, and Korea (known as ASEAN+3).  This was complemented from 2007 with a parallel study process for an ASEAN+6 FTA, which included the ASEAN+3 partners plus Australia, India, and New Zealand.  Both these study processes concluded in 2011 following which ASEAN put forward the RCEP concept. 
New Zealand is pleased to be part of this major trade initiative in the dynamic East Asian region.  Asia is an increasingly critical source of growth, markets, and innovation for New Zealand. The potential benefits for regional value chains are expected to have a positive impact on New Zealand’s ability to do business in the region and around the world.
New Zealand’s existing concluded FTAs will remain in place.  At the same time, RCEP will involve the creation of new FTA relationships where they do not already exist. It will draw together the strands of ASEAN’s various FTAs, and also overlap some current bilateral and plurilateral negotiations. In addition, RCEP may offer an opportunity for New Zealand to improve at the margin on some of our existing agreements.
Following a preparatory process, the participating countries began formal negotiations in May 2013.  RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement/legal and institutional issues and other issues to be identified during the course of negotiations.