The Story of RCEP: History, Negotiations, Structure, and Future Directions

As the RCEP leaders recognised during the signing of RCEP, beyond the impact of RCEP in supporting the multilateral trading system is a trade pact that has the potential to address the many challenges facing the region, including the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. [...] ASEAN centrality: Driving the essence of RCEP The launch of RCEP negotiations also marked ASEAN’s initial success in leading the process of building an East Asian FTA right from the start, underpinning the crucial role of ASEAN centrality.3 If ASEAN centrality is understood to be the role and capability to be in the driver seat, then one must recognise and appreciate the role played by ASEAN in th. [...] The TNC Chair also ‘recommended to the ministers to extend the RCEP negotiations beyond 2015, while instructing the TNC to further accelerate the negotiations as much as possible in 2015.’ 7 The Key Elements paper was agreed by the TNC at the 19th Round (Hyderabad, 2017) and welcomed by the ministers at the 5th RCEP Ministerial Meeting in September 2017. [...] From the drafting of the Guiding Principles that led to the launch of RCEP negotiations, and even prior to that, up to the last round in July 2020 (31st Round, by video conference), and to the signing of the agreement in November 2020, ASEC was there supporting the TNC Chair and the various working groups driving the negotiations. [...] The sheer volume of the RCEP Agreement is not fully and truly representative of the hard work of those involved in the negotiations, from the country lead negotiators and their sectoral experts but perhaps more importantly the chair of the RCEP TNC who, with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat, had to single-handedly manage the technical difficulties arising from negotiating the mega-trade deal w.