(the picture shows the scene of the signing ceremony of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) photographed in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, on November 15, 2002.) The regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP), initiated by ASEAN in 2012 and negotiated for eight years, will enter into force on January 1, 2022. On November 2, the ASEAN Secretariat, which is responsible for the custody of the agreement, announced that six ASEAN member states including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and four non ASEAN member states including China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia had officially submitted their instruments of approval, so as to make the agreement meet the conditions for entry into force. The level of openness exceeds that of the WTO On November 11, Shu jueteng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce of China, said that RCEP will come into force as scheduled, which is a new major progress in regional economic integration in East Asia, which will effectively stimulate the growth of intra regional trade and investment, improve the overall business environment in the region and stabilize the regional industrial chain supply chain. At present, the domestic preparations for the implementation of RCEP are ready to ensure the full implementation of obligations when the agreement enters into force. In an interview with this newspaper, Wang Yong, Professor of the school of international relations of Peking University and director of the international political and economic research center of Peking University, said: "The official launch of RCEP is of great significance to promoting regional trade liberalization, economic integration, world economic recovery and the sustainable development of economic globalization. At present, the world economy is facing severe challenges due to the repeated global epidemic, populism and trade protectionism. The launch of RCEP will become a rare bright spot in the global economy." Yuan Bo, deputy director and researcher of the Asian Institute of the Institute of international trade and economic cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with this newspaper: "As the largest free trade area in the world, RCEP accounts for about 30% of the global total in terms of total population, total economy and total trade. It can not only promote trade, investment and economic growth within the region and enhance confidence in regional economic development, but also play a positive role in restoring the growth of Global trade and investment under the epidemic. The opening level of RCEP is higher than that of WTO and represents free trade The RCEP region is also the center of the global manufacturing industry. It forms a stable and open industrial chain supply chain cooperation through free trade and rules and institutional arrangements, which also helps to alleviate the supply crisis facing the world. " It is expected to form the world's largest market The years have passed like birds, and the world is like a chess game. Affected by trade friction and the epidemic, major changes have taken place in the international market, and the significance of Asia Pacific economic integration to China's economic development has become more and more prominent. On November 7, the General Administration of Customs released China's foreign trade import and export data for the first 10 months of this year. In the first 10 months, China's total import and export value was 31.67 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.2%, an increase of 23.4% over the same period in 2019. In the first 10 months, ASEAN was China's largest trading partner, and the total trade value between China and ASEAN was 4.55 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.4%, accounting for 14.4% of China's total foreign trade value. Among them, exports to ASEAN Exports reached 2.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.1%; imports from ASEAN reached 2.05 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.2%; trade surplus with ASEAN reached 448.51 billion yuan, an increase of 6.6%. Zhang Monan, chief researcher of the US Europe Institute of the China Center for international economic exchanges, said in an interview with this newspaper: "Intra Asia Pacific trade has been growing very fast in recent years. China, Japan and South Korea have become the centers of global manufacturing industry. RCEP is conducive to promoting trade and investment facilitation and promoting the establishment of a unified large market. RCEP can rely on regional resource endowment to form a closed loop of regional industrial chain, value chain and supply chain. Between China and neighboring countries and other important trading partners We can consolidate China's international economic and trade relations and hedge the adverse effects of possible international economic and political turmoil through agreements that are easier to implement and adjust. The important role of RCEP is to reduce trade costs, in which the tariff of more than 90% of goods trade is reduced to zero tariff or zero tariff within 10 years. " Yuan Bo pointed out: "After RCEP comes into force, the flow of goods, services, investment and personnel among regional Member States will be more free and convenient, and the economic ties among the 15 countries in the region will be more seamless and unblocked. It will gradually form the world's largest regional integration market, which will not only help to expand intra regional trade and investment, but also help to attract more foreign capital, so as to promote regional economic growth. It is estimated that By 2035, RCEP will drive the real GDP, export and import increment of the region as a whole to increase by 0.86%, 18.30% and 9.63% respectively compared with the benchmark situation. The cumulative incremental scale of export and import will reach US $857.1 billion and US $983.7 billion respectively, the regional investment will increase by 1.47% and the regional economic welfare will increase by US $162.8 billion. " Deepen political mutual trust among members In the Asia Pacific region economic forecast published in October, the International Monetary Fund said that compared with the expected value of the world economic outlook in April 2021, the growth prospect of Asia in 2021 decreased by more than 1 percentage point to 6.5%, because the epidemic has entered a new outbreak cycle It is suggested that Asia's growth engine be rekindled through trade liberalization. The analysis emphasizes that Asia still has room to lower non-tariff barriers faster (much higher than other regions) in order to achieve inclusive prosperity and faster development Based on the progress made in regional agreements, we should make persistent efforts to seek development. As we all know, one of the difficulties in Asia Pacific economic integration is that there are great differences in development levels among countries. Yuan Bo said: "the goal of RCEP is to promote all Member States to share RCEP achievements in order to achieve the goal of inclusive, balanced and common development. Therefore, it has specially set up chapters and provisions on small and medium-sized enterprises and economic and technical cooperation, give differential treatment to less developed members in the opening commitments of the agreement, and provide technical assistance and capacity-building support." Zhang Mo Nan said: "RCEP is characterized by its inclusiveness. Some rules are not as high as cptpp, including intellectual property protection, data governance and market competition neutral policies, which give developing countries buffer time. For example, the regional rule of origin accumulation, the standard of regional production value is set at 40%. It does not have the non-standard of the US Mexico Canada agreement or cptpp Often obvious exclusivity, which provides some countries with more space to participate in the global value chain. I believe that with the deepening of regional integration, RCEP may also be further upgraded. " Wang Yong said: "during the RCEP negotiations, the development gap between different economies has been taken into account and different policy spaces have been given to different countries, which reflects the basic characteristics of trade liberalization in the Asia Pacific region, that is, to face up to and respect the gap, make corresponding arrangements, and more reflect the concept of" everyone ", rather than blindly pursuing the so-called" high standards " At present, the biggest challenge of RCEP is that the region is facing the geopolitical pressure driven by the United States. In order to contain China's development, the United States has teamed up in the Asia Pacific region, engaged in military alliances, and let the countries in the region "choose the side station" This pressure is the biggest damage to the integrity of the Asia Pacific region. Even under such circumstances, most of the 15 countries have taken the initiative to approve the start of the integration process, indicating that they resist the pressure of "security" of US economic problems and are unwilling to "choose sides" between China and the United States At the same time, the launch of RCEP will provide a good environment for improving the relations between some members. RCEP will further promote the cooperation and policy coordination of countries in the region, deepen the foundation of political mutual trust and move towards the goal of a real regional community. " Wang Yong also pointed out: "RCEP members include Australia, but not the United States and India. The signal released by RCEP is that countries in the region have common will and common interests. Promoting the development of regional economic integration and maintaining economic relations with China is an important part of it. All countries in the Asia Pacific region have benefited from China's economic rise. India will therefore increase its sense of crisis and worry free France seized the opportunity of economic integration in the Asia Pacific region. The epidemic had a great impact on India's economy. At the same time, it withdrew at the last moment due to internal pressure. However, RCEP still reserved the opportunity for India to enter the process of economic integration in the Asia Pacific region. India should focus on long-term interests and be determined to participate in the process of regional integration in the Asia Pacific region without following the containment of the United States Australia is an active promoter of Asia Pacific Economic Integration and has played a relatively large role in it. With the opportunity of RCEP launch, Australia should maintain close economic ties with China and do not choose sides between China and the United States, which is more conducive to Australia's national interests. " (outlook new era)