The economic leaders of Japan, China, South Korea, and ASEAN held an online meeting on September 13. In the joint statement after the meeting, the "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (RCEP) included the guidelines for its entry into force in January 2022. This is the first time the target effective time of RCEP has been announced.

RCEP is a framework that promotes the realization of trade freedom through tariff reduction, etc. 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries have joined. The countries that signed the agreement in November 2020 are proceeding with domestic approval procedures. The joint statement clearly stated that it will take effect as soon as possible in January 2022.

If more than 6 of the ASEAN countries have not completed the domestic procedures, and 3 or more of the 5 countries outside of ASEAN have not completed the domestic procedures, they cannot enter into the effective procedures. Japan and China have completed the procedures, and South Korea and New Zealand are advancing domestic procedures. Among the ASEAN countries, only Singapore has completed the procedures, and there are uncertainties about whether the consensus will take effect as scheduled.

Countries in the world need to re-recognize that it is important to promote the economic development of developing countries through the promotion of development assistance, trade and investment. The successful signing of RCEP created a new opportunity for the liberalization and facilitation of world trade and investment. The implementation of RCEP will also play a positive role in improving the international economic order. The joint statement stated that in order to recover the economy from the new crown epidemic, "this is a strong signal that the economy can recover from the new crown and the regional commitment to the multilateral trading system. Editor/Xu Shengpeng