How can The trade and economic cooperation between China and Japan be further enhanced by RCEP?

China and Japan are close neighbors across the water and long-term partners of cooperation. During the epidemic, China and Japan have worked together to fight the epidemic. The people of the two countries have supported and helped each other, actively promoted the cooperation on industrial and production resumption, and helped the two economies move towards recovery one after another. In particular, after the successful signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid an official visit to Japan and reached five important consensus and six decisions. This is of great significance to both China and Japan.

"As the first free trade agreement between China and Japan, the RCEP has achieved a historic breakthrough in tariff reduction between China and Japan and is of great strategic significance to both sides. "China and Japan are important economic and trade partners to each other. The RCEP is bound to greatly promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation and further deepen economic integration." Ju Wenyong, general Representative of CcPIT Japan's Representative office in Japan, told China Trade News that the establishment of the free trade partnership between China, Japan and the ROK for the first time through RCEP is conducive to promoting the economic integration of China, Japan and the ROK at a higher level and lays a foundation for the conclusion of the FTA in the future.

In Ju's opinion, the world is facing great changes unseen in a century, and the economic and trade relations between China and Japan are increasingly exerting an important influence on the region and the world and playing an important role in the global economic development. As the second and third largest economies in the world, China and Japan have reached a FREE trade agreement for the first time, which will help promote regional economic integration at a higher level, further enhance the role of the Asia-Pacific region in world economic development, and play an important and positive role in promoting global economic recovery and upholding the multilateral trading system.

"China-japan economic and trade relations will stimulate the huge potential of the RCEP, the largest free trade area in the world with the largest population and the largest economy, and inject impetus into regional and global economic growth." Ju said that to be specific, there are "three improvements" in terms of the economy and trade between China and Japan, namely, further improvement of market openness, significant improvement of trade facilitation and further improvement of investment liberalization.

Further improvement in market openness covers trade in goods and trade in services. In terms of trade in goods, after the RCEP comes into force, over 90% of the trade in goods within the region will eventually be tariff-free, with the focus on reducing taxes to zero immediately and zero within 10 years. It is expected that the RCEP will honor all its commitments on trade liberalization in goods within a relatively short period of time. In terms of trade in services, Japan adopts a negative list approach and China adopts a positive list approach, which will be converted into a negative list within 6 years after the entry into force of the Agreement. China's commitment to open trade in services has reached the highest level of existing free trade agreements.

Significant improvement in trade facilitation is mainly reflected in rules of origin and customs clearance procedures. In terms of rules of origin, RCEP applies the principle of regional accumulation in the region to deepen the industrial and value chains within the region. At the same time, the types of CO (Cepa) are further enriched. In addition to the traditional CO (CEPA), the approved declaration of exporters and the declaration of exporters themselves are also allowed, which can greatly save the operating costs of enterprises. In terms of customs procedures, RCEP has simplified customs clearance procedures and, where possible, aims to release express and perishable goods within six hours of their arrival. This has facilitated the development of a new type of cross-border logistics and facilitated the rapid clearance and trade growth of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs, dairy products and other products.

Further improvement in the degree of investment liberalization is reflected in the adoption of the negative list model. On the investment side, the negative list approach has been adopted to open up non-service sector investment, which has greatly enhanced the policy transparency of all parties. For the first time, China has made investment commitments under a free trade agreement in the form of a negative list. The rules include intellectual property rights, e-commerce, competition, government procurement, small and medium-sized enterprises and other fields.

"The economic and trade exchanges between China and Japan under the RCEP framework will restructure the supply chain and value chain within the region, optimize the allocation of personnel, technology, capital and market, optimize the production layout and upgrade the industrial structure. RCEP will help Advantageous Chinese enterprises to enjoy the dividend of Japanese tariff reduction soon. This will help expand imports of advanced technologies, equipment and spare parts, as well as resources commodities in demand at home, diversify imports and exports, and optimize the mix of imports and exports." In Ju's opinion, this will help Chinese industries to participate more fully in the market competition, continuously realize industrial transformation and upgrading, and consolidate China's position in the regional industrial chain and supply chain.

"According to the five consensus and six specific decisions reached between China and Japan, opportunities will be created in key areas such as public health, scientific and technological innovation, energy conservation and environmental protection, health care, e-commerce and third-party markets," he said. Ju said that Chinese and Japanese companies need to re-examine the regional integration market and actively participate in international competition and cooperation. To this end, he proposed the following Suggestions: study and master RCEP, an important tool, and pay close attention to the dynamics of relevant policies and regulations; Attach great importance to the management of origin, and take the initiative to use preferential origin visas for export in accordance with the rules of origin of free trade Agreements; Continue to strengthen compliance management and make good use of legal and commercial services; We will make effective use of preferential trade and investment arrangements within the region to make strategic investment plans for enterprises.