28th meeting of trade negotiating committee for RCEP opens in Da Nang

Six coutries includes Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.This is the last official negotiation round this year with the aim to handle the remaining issues and conclude the negotiation of the trade deal under the direction of leaders of the 16 RCEP countries.

RCEP is scheduled to establish the world's largest free trade area, including 47.4% of the world's population, 30% of the world's GDP, 29.1% of the world's trade value, and 32.5% of the global investment flow.

Addressing the meeting, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh appreciated the efforts of the heads of delegations and negotiators of 16 countries who have made remarkable progress in negotiations, particularly since the beginning of 2019.

He emphasised that the negotiation for the trade deal is entering the final stage, requiring high determination and efforts of the countries to find flexible and unified solutions to deal with outstanding issues to conclude the negotiation.

With commitments on market opening and trade facilitation, RCEP is expected to create the world's largest free trade area with the development of value chains in the region and the world as well as promoting the economic development of ASEAN countries.

With the aim of achieving a high-quality and balanced agreement, Vietnam has actively participated in discussions and actively made proposals in many areas, in order to resolve problems between the parties while ensuring the national interests.

Negotiations on RCEP have completed a number of chapters regarding economic cooperation, small and medium-sized enterprises, customs procedures and trade facilitation, government procurement, and others, in addition to significantly narrowing views among countries in important areas including trade in goods, trade in services, investment, and intellectual property.

The negotiations on RCEP is expected to be concluded in late 2019 so that the trade deal can be signed in 2020 as scheduled.

(Source: NDO)