Todd Bishop
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) is one of the important topics of this year at the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. The Thai government’s talks on November 4th came to Monday, and the participating countries are already in the process of concluding talks. Government spokesman Narumon Pinyosinwat is expected to sign around February 2020. If RECP is a thing, it will be the world’s largest trading group.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said on the 4th that “the negotiations last night were summative.” He said that “national leaders will announce the success of the RCEP agreement later today. India is also part of it.” And will jointly announce the news. The agreement will be signed in 2020.”
The RCEP negotiating countries include East 10 countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. Thailand said that although India questioned the agreement at the last moment, the negotiating parties made efforts to make progress on the 3rd.
However, Reuters reported that India last week made it difficult for the participating countries to meet the requirements. This has created obstacles to the negotiations. Some countries have suggested that it is better to push forward RCEP negotiations without it. However, when Zhu Lin accepted a Reuters visit on November 3, he pointed out that India did not withdraw from the negotiations, and the RECP negotiations were in good condition.
The 35th ASEAN Summit and related meetings were held in Bangkok, Thailand from October 31st to November 4th. In his opening speech on the 3rd, the rotating chairman of Thailand, Prayut Chan-ocha, said that he should continue to work hard to reach the East Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) in 2019 to stimulate economic growth, trade and investment.
