Original title: Helping regional economic recovery after the epidemic, RCEP injects new vitality into e-commerce
On January 1, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“RCEP”) came into effect. This marks the official landing of the free trade agreement covering the world‘s largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, and the most development potential. 10 countries including Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have advanced their implementation, South Korea will fully implement it from February 1, and Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar will also have domestic approval procedures After completion, start implementing.
In order to promote regional trade facilitation and create a favorable e-commerce environment, RCEP has formulated a set of clear rules for e-commerce, covering paperless trade, electronic authentication and electronic signatures, online consumer protection, and online personal information protection. , domestic regulatory framework, customs tariffs, cyber security, etc. An executive of the Cambodian e-commerce platform said that RCEP will promote free trade and reduce the cost of importing goods from member countries to Cambodia, which is conducive to the development of local enterprises and e-commerce platforms, and will also provide greater benefits to the Cambodian people.
As the COVID-19 epidemic continues, many ASEAN countries have implemented social distancing, city closures and other epidemic prevention measures. Physical stores have to face difficulties such as reduced consumer demand, declining retail sales, and suspension of external operations. As a result, the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry has fallen into a slump. Under the circumstance that the frequency of face-to-face transactions has decreased and it is even difficult for people in ASEAN countries to go out of their homes and go into physical stores for consumption, the use of the Internet has gradually deepened, and the frequency of online shopping has increased significantly. During the epidemic, the average daily time spent online by people in ASEAN countries has increased by 1 hour, which is prompting ASEAN countries to accelerate the pace of promoting the digital transformation of economy and society, and e-commerce has also become an indispensable and important part of it. According to statistics, in 2021, the major ASEAN economies such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines will add a total of 40 million Internet users, and the number of Internet users in the region will increase from 360 million in 2019 to 440 million. The Internet penetration rate Among them, 80% of netizens have at least one online shopping experience in 2021, and they tend to buy daily necessities, beauty products, clothing and electronic products on online shopping platforms. As netizens in Southeast Asia increasingly realize the advantages of e-commerce, such as safety and convenience, it is predicted that the trend of people turning to online shopping will continue after the epidemic is over.
Under the influence of several positive factors such as the rapid recovery of China’s foreign border trade and the opening of the China-Laos railway, the effect of RCEP on promoting regional trade facilitation is even more obvious. ASEAN countries expect RCEP to further improve the public service system of the free trade agreement, promote information interconnection, and achieve post-pandemic economic recovery in the region. Oramon, director of the Trade Negotiation Department of the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand, said that after RCEP takes effect, member states will exempt more than 30,000 Thai products from tariffs, of which more than 20,000 products can immediately enjoy zero-tariff treatment. RCEP will effectively promote the post-epidemic recovery of the regional economy and enhance the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. At the same time, due to the huge Chinese market, the opening of the China-Laos railway will also benefit Thailand. Daowong Phachanthavon, executive vice-chairman of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that RCEP will make the connection between Laos and China closer, and it can effectively reduce the cost of commodity trade by combining with the China-Laos Railway. Yu Hong, a senior researcher at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, said that RCEP has very detailed regulations on online consumer personal data protection, paperless trade, and electronic signatures, which will promote the facilitation of regional e-commerce and improve regional e-commerce. The trade environment is conducive to the development of e-commerce among regional members.
The entry into force of RCEP has aroused great concern in the international community. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) gave this positive evaluation, saying that the RCEP will greatly promote the growth of foreign direct investment in the region and other economies. Shi Shiwei, a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, said that as one of the most active regions in the world economy, the integration of value chains and supply chains among RCEP member countries has continued to improve. After the RCEP comes into effect, the member states can better complement each other’s advantages, achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, and promote the quality and efficiency of supply chains and value chains. Giuliano Noci, a professor at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, believes that ASEAN countries with huge growth potential, such as Laos and Cambodia, will be the biggest beneficiaries. In order to better seize the opportunities brought by RCEP, the Ministry of Commerce of China will issue the “Guiding Opinions on High-quality Implementation of RCEP” with relevant departments to guide and help local governments and enterprises to better apply RCEP rules.
The entry into force of RCEP will make the trade between member countries, especially ASEAN countries, and China closer, which will promote the implementation of cross-border RMB business to a certain extent. The Central Bank of Myanmar issued an announcement a few days ago, in order to promote trade between Myanmar and China, facilitate the flow of goods, facilitate currency transactions and settlements between the two countries, and promote the circulation of domestic currency in Myanmar, allowing the direct use of RMB and Kyat transactions in the border areas of Myanmar and China. The Cambodian e-commerce platform Tinh Tinh has designed a special simplified Chinese page on its official website for Chinese users, and also provides UnionPay, Alipay, WeChat, etc. as payment methods. In addition, the platform has cooperated with a number of domestic logistics express companies to optimize the full-link distribution network for cross-border e-commerce. (Chen Xiaoyang）
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