The world’s largest free trade zone is launched

Zhoushan port in China

The leadership in Beijing wants to position itself as a counterweight to the USA in global trade.

(Photo: imago images / ZUMA Wire)

Dusseldorf, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok Around 30 percent of global economic output and around a third of all people on the globe: The Asian free trade zone RCEP, which comes into force on January 1st, has reached record dimensions. With China and Japan it belongs to the second and third largest economies in the world. Also South Korea, ten of the Southeast Asian Asean countries as well as Australia and New Zealand.

RCEP stands for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, but focuses on extensive trade liberalization. In the long term – and in some cases this will take up to 20 years – more than 90 percent of trade in the RCEP area should be duty-free. In the service and investment area, however, RCEP brings little approximation.

But for the first time, the Northeast Asian heavyweights Japan, China and Korea are linked by a trade agreement. This is a central political, but also an economic step, which can also bring advantages to European companies via the value chains in the region.

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