On November 15,2020, a blockbuster news triggered the cross-border e-commerce industry. China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and ten ASEAN countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). After eight years of hard negotiations, the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was finally announced. So what is the relationship between RCEP and cross-border e-commerce?
For RCEP and cross-border e-commerce, the RCEP subject includes 20 chapters on trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedy, trade in services, investment, e-commerce, and government procurement. Chapter 12, titled "E-commerce", consists of five sections and 17 articles. It mainly expounds the content of cooperation between contracting parties on e-commerce, clarifies the scope of application, and actively promotes paperless trade, electronic certification and electronic signature. Request the parties to create a favorable environment for e-commerce, protect the personal information of e-commerce users, provide protection for online consumers, and strengthen supervision and cooperation on non-invited commercial electronic information; The Parties also agree to maintain the current practice of not imposing tariffs on e-commerce according to the decision of the WTO Ministerial Meeting, and stipulate the parties to guarantee the transparency and network security of relevant contents. Section 4 is entitled "Promoting Cross-border E-commerce", which mainly sets up a regulatory policy space for the location of computer facilities and the cross-border transmission of information through electronic means. It can be seen that the establishment of RCEP provides an effective policy guarantee for the development of cross-border e-commerce in China, especially for the development of cross-border e-commerce between relevant contracting parties. After the agreement comes into force, more than 90% of the trade in goods in the region will eventually achieve the unification of zero tariff and a negative list, which will more effectively promote the development of cross-border e-commerce of relevant contracting parties.
The volume of cross-border trade will increase sharply, and the establishment of RCEP will be good for the long term, which will greatly promote the increase of cross-border trade volume and attract more foreign investment. After the launch of policies such as Belt and Road and Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the first industries to benefit from the port and shipping. In the context of this year's epidemic, the activity of online cross-border e-commerce is the most significant.
Three major benefits of RCEP for cross-border trade:
Great Potential
The RCEP covers 30% of the global population, about 32% of global GPD, about 29% of global trade, and about 32% of global investment;
Zero Tariff
3-% of the goods of the three Southeast Asian countries enjoy zero tariff treatment, and 65% of the goods of other member countries enjoy zero tariff;
High Quality
The opening level of RCEP goods trade has reached over 90%. China's total import and export volume of RCEP is approximately 10 trillion yuan;The Ministry of Commerce experts to interpret the RCEP:
After the establishment of RCEP, it has aroused extensive discussion. Government experts and industry leaders have put forward their own views. What do the leaders of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce say? The head of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce interprets the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
01. In the field of e-commerce, China, for the first time, has incorporated regulations on data flow and information storage in free trade agreements on the premise of complying with Chinese laws and regulations.
02, RCEP, simplify the customs clearance procedures, arrival, information technology to promote efficient management, when possible, the express goods, perishable goods to achieve goods release within 6 hours after arrival, promote the express and other new cross-border logistics development, promote the fruits and vegetables and meat, eggs, dairy products and other fresh products fast customs clearance and trade growth. The overall level exceeds the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.
03. Enhancing mutual policy trust, mutual recognition of regulations and communication among enterprises in the field of e-commerce among its members will greatly promote the development of e-commerce in the region.
The impact of RCEP on cross-border e-commerce. According to the relevant data of the Export-Import Bank of China, China's total trade in 2019 was 460 million yuan, of which the total amount of RCEP parties accounted for 28.3%. In the first three quarters of this year, the trade volume between China and ASEAN reached 481.81 billion US dollars, up by 5% year on year. ASEAN has historically become China's largest trading partner, and China's investment in ASEAN has increased by 76.6% year on year. In the first three years, China's total trade with other RCEP members exceeded 100 million US dollars, accounting for about one-third of China's total foreign trade. It can be seen from the above data that the RCEP contracting parties have always been China's main partner in foreign trade.
On the whole, the establishment of the RCEP has not only promoted the development of regional economic integration, but also contributed to the global economic recovery and cross-border exchanges after the epidemic. In the future, RCEP will have a strong driving effect on import and export trade, and will inevitably bring development opportunities for cross-border e-commerce.