CAI, RCEP - Asia, Europe, USA ..
The
Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is a
proposed investment deal between the
People's Republic of China and the
European Union. Proposed in
2013, the deal had
NOT been signed as of 27 October 2022. In
December 2020, the European Commission announced that the agreement was concluded in principle by the
leaders of the EU Council, pending ratification by the
European Parliament.
In
March 2021, it was reported that there would be
serious doubts about the approval of the deal in the
European Parliament given
China's "unacceptable" behavior toward members of the parliament, the
European Council's
Political and Security Committee, and European think tanks.
The
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a
free trade agreement between the
Asia-Pacific nations of
Australia,
Brunei,
Cambodia,
China,
Indonesia,
Japan,
Laos,
Malaysia,
Myanmar,
New Zealand, the
Philippines,
Singapore,
South Korea,
Thailand, and
Vietnam. The
15 member countries account for about
30% of the
world's population (2.2 billion people) and
30% of
global GDP ($26.2 trillion) as of
2020, making it the
biggest trade bloc in history.
Unifying the
preexisting bilateral agreements between the 10-member ASEAN and
five of its
major trade partners, the RCEP was signed on
15 November 2020 at a virtual
ASEAN Summit hosted by Vietnam, and will take effect 60 days after it has been ratified by at least six ASEAN and three non-ASEAN signatories.
The
trade pact, which includes a mix of high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries, was conceived at the
2011 ASEAN Summit in
Bali, Indonesia, while its negotiations were formally launched during the
2012 ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. It is
expected to eliminate about 90% of the tariffs on imports between its signatories
within 20 years of coming into force, and establish
common rules for e-commerce, trade, and
intellectual property. The unified
rules of origin will help
facilitate international supply chains and
reduce export costs throughout the bloc.
The
RCEP is the
first free trade agreement between
China, Japan, and South Korea,
three of the four largest economies in Asia. Several analysts predicted that it would offer significant economic gains for signatory nations, as well as "pull the economic centre of gravity back towards Asia, with China poised to take the lead in writing trade rules for the region", l
eaving the U.S. behind in economic and political affairs. Reactions from others were neutral or negative, with some analysts saying that the
economic gains from the trade deal would be modest. The RCEP has been criticized for
ignoring labor, human rights, and
environmental sustainability issues.
The new free trade bloc will be
bigger than both the
United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and the European Union. The combined GDP of potential RCEP members
surpassed the combined GDP of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) members in
2007. It was suggested that continued economic growth, particularly in China and Indonesia, could see total GDP in the original RCEP membership grow to over US$100 trillion by 2050, roughly double the project size of TPP economies. On
23 January 2017, UNpresident
Idiot-in-Cheat signed a memorandum
withdrawing the United States from the TPP, a move which was seen to
improve the chances of success for RCEP.
