Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Australia's Role and Opportunities

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Student Name:
Date:
Institution:

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Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Australian
Advanced Manufacturing Council.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that has now become defunct provided a chance to all strata
to make sure that it was deeply involved in the regional alliance framework taking place in the
Asia Pacific region and continued with the process of economic integration with its regional
counterparts. Therefore it is the geopolitical imperative of Australia to make sure that a leading
role is played by it in the discussions related with researchers and the peculiarities of the
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that is led by ASEAN and in this way
consolidating its position as the bastion for the governance of the deal as well as the intellectual
property measures and environmental standards that continue to plague the RCEP till now.1
Under the circumstances it is necessary that its influence and experience is used by Australia in
these areas for the purpose of making sure that it remains a valued partner during the
negotiations and establishes itself as a leading an incredible power in the Asia-Pacific,
particularly in view of the growing absence of the United States.
The RCEP can be described as a proposal for regional free trade area. In the beginning it
involved the 10 ASEAN Member States and the nations that have present Free Trade
Agreements (FTAs) with ASEAN. These were Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, China and
South Korea. According to the experts, RCEP has the potential of delivering high-quality and
comprehensive, mutually beneficial economic agreement.2 Such agreement will allow the
member states to form partnership to having a wide range of issues. These include but are not
restricted to trade and investment taking place in goods and services, intellectual property and
competition measures, economic and heuristic cooperation and disputes and their resolution
mechanisms.
1 Heagney, K. J. (2013) The RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and the Possible Impact of the
RCEP on Lao PDR
2 Rose, S.K. and Lee, H. L. (2009) Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data for Climate Change Economic
Analysis. In: Hertel, T.W., Rose, S.K. and Tol, R.S.J., Eds., Economic Analysis of Land Use in Global Climate
Change Policy, Routledge, London, 89-120

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It is widely agreed that there are immense opportunities present. The 16 countries taking part in
RCEP account for nearly 50% of the population of the world. At the same time these countries
have 30% of global GDP and control nearly 35% of the global exports. These economies account
for nearly 60% of the two-way trade taking place in Australia, 18% of its two-way investment
and more than 65% of the exports of Australia.3 Under the circumstances, it can be stated that
RCEP is going to be conducive for lowering the trade barriers with these nations and it will also
help in securing improved market access to the exporters and investors from Australia.
However, there are conflicting priorities and competing interests that challenge the RCEP
negotiations. These are the result of varying level of political and economic development and the
member countries. On the other hand, there were a host of accords under the TPP between the
governance for state owned enterprises, environmental standards, intellectual property
transparency, data liberalization and the resolution of disputes. In comparison, such provisions
are not present in the RCEP. It does not provide that the member states shall protect the rights of
the laborer or to improve environmental standards as was provided by the TPP and governance
and transparency related with the deal have been pointed out as a probable concern.
Therefore it is imperative that Australia should try to maintain a balance between its international
trade objectivists and the desire of the nation to play a significant role as major negotiated
regarding the wider governance and core concerns of the deal. For Australia it will be beneficial
to make sure that the deal provides greater economic and investment freedom to Australia.
Advocating for transparency in and regulations in major RCEP markets, allowing the investors in
Australia to set up branches in partner countries 84 entry joint venture with a local partner and
easing the FDI restrictions in some sectors or corporations will result in increasing the outgoing
as well as incoming investment in Australia and at the same time it will also help the investors in
Australia to achieve better control over their Investments, particularly in case of RCEP partner
nations.
At the same time, it is also required that a balance should be maintained by Australia between the
investor state dispute settlement clauses and simultaneously encouraging the investments and
also promoting judicial and regulatory transparency along with the need for preventing Australia
3 Akahori, H., Masuda, K. and Yamamoto, Y. (2014) Agricultural Nutrient Balances under a Japan-China-Korea
Free Trade Agreement: Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Journal of Rural Problems, 50, 60-64