Download Plenary Session III: RCEP Impact on East Asia Investment

Plenary Session III: RCEP Impact on East Asia
Investment
Presented by
Mr. Phairush Burapachaisri,
Vice Chairman, the Board of Trade of Thailand
Chairman, EABC Working Group for RCEP
1st East Asia Investment Forum, 24 August 2015, Kuala Lumpur
1. An Overview
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
 FTA Negotiations
among ASEAN+6
 Launched on 20
Nov. 2012 by the
Leaders of the 16
participating
countries
 Over 3 billion
people
 About US$17.23
trillion of combined
GDP (2012)
Source: ASEAN Secretariat
2. Scope of RCEP Negotiations
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Trade in goods
Trade in services
Investment
Economic and technical co-operation
Intellectual property
Competition
Dispute settlement
Other issues
 10th Round of RCEP Negotiation to be held in Oct. 2015 in
Korea.
 RCEP Summit to be held in Nov. 2015 in Malaysia.
3. EABC Working Group for RCEP
 EABC Working Group for RCEP was formed with the following
main objectives:
1) Conduit for effective business input into the RCEP
negotiations and seek to ensure that the negotiations
address business needs and priorities, and
2) Seek to ensure RCEP negotiations stay on track to deliver
the high level of ambition outlined by Leaders in their Joint
Declaration and endorsed by Leaders in the Guiding
Principles.
4. Preliminary Recommendations for the RCEP
 EABC Working Group for RCEP submitted the preliminary
recommendations in 11 areas to the RCEP Trade Negotiation
Committee meeting (TNC) held on 23 June 2014 in Singapore:1) Target Date
2) Scope of the RCEP Negotiation
3) Tariff Elimination
4) Rules of Origin (ROO)
5) Non-tariff Measures (NTMs)
6) Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)
7) Trade Facilitation
8) Trade in Services
9) Investment
10) Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
11) Emerging and New Issues (i.e. E-commerce, SMEs)
Areas
Preliminary Recommendations
1) Target Date
 Support the target date of RCEP
negotiations by the end of 2015.
2) Scope of the RCEP  Support the Guiding Principles
Negotiations
endorsed by the Leaders, which
encompasses the 8 areas.
3) Tariff Elimination
 To deliver real value to business, it
needs to go beyond existing
ASEAN+1 FTAs.
 An ambitious agreement for
liberalizing trade in goods is needed.
Areas
Preliminary Recommendations
4) Rules of Origin
(ROO)
 Harmonizing
and
Modernizing
ASEAN+1 FTA ROO , with a view to
creating and facilitating trade in the
region.
 In the negotiation of trade in goods,
RCEP should also aim to remove NTMs.
5) Non-tariff
measures (NTMs)
6) ECOTECH
 ECOTECH programs can help bridge the
gap between RCEP economies at
different stages of development.
 Technical assistance and capacity
building in complex areas such as SPS
and ROO for example, will help the
implementation of RCEP.
Areas
Preliminary Recommendations
7) Trade Facilitation  TF is a key element of RCEP for the business
community.
(TF)
 Recommend the adoption of the “advance
ruling mechanism” to make customs
procedures more effective and business
friendly.
 Support the completion and rollout of single
window systems across RCEP to help reduce
transaction costs.
8) Trade in Services
 It is important that RCEP achieves
comprehensive
high
quality
services
commitments beyond GATS and ASEAN+1 FTAs
given the significant economic contribution of
services trade in the region.
 Recommend a negative list approach to
services trade liberalization and the inclusion
of Most Favoured Nation, National Treatment
and Market Access obligations.
Areas
Preliminary Recommendations
9) Investment
 Recommend that RCEP create a
predictable and liberal investment
environment
by
improving
on
commitments under existing ASEAN+1
FTAs.
 Recommend a negative list approach, as
well as providing Most Favoured Nation
treatment and National Treatment.
 Recommend
that
RCEP
address
expropriation, compensation and freedom
of transfer of funds and the creation of a
transparent
dispute
settlement
mechanism to give investors greater
certainty.
Areas
Preliminary Recommendations
10) IPR
 Recommend the IPR chapter should include
transparent procedures for IP registration,
effective enforcement of IP rights, improve access
to IP information and improved quality of patent
examination.
11) Emerging
and New Issues
(1) E-commerce
 Recommend that RCEP should provide better
disciplines on e-commerce in order to open up
business opportunities especially for the SMEs.
 It is important to maintain a highly efficient
cross border e-commerce environment without
sacrificing consumer protection or privacy.
(2) SMEs:
 Recommend that RCEP address the particular
needs and development of SMEs.
5. Conclusion
 Schedule of RCEP Negotiations:
 The 9th Round of RCEP Negotiation was taken place in Nay
Pyi Taw during 3-7 Aug 2015.
 The 3rd RCEP Ministerial Meeting to be held on 24 Aug.
2015 in K.L., Malaysia
 The 10th Round of RCEP Negotiation to be held on Oct.
2015 in Korea.
 RCEP Summit to be held in Malaysia in Nov. 2015.
 It is important to speedy the RCEP negotiations
process, especially the core issues, to ensure
concluding the RCEP by the end of 2015.
 Business inputs into the RCEP negotiation is
essential to be taken into consideration. This would
realize the RCEP serving as a business-friendly FTA.