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Ramon M. Lopez, Secretary to the TOKYO Trade, urged Lopez represented the Philippines at the fifth RCEP Intercontinental Meeting in Tokyo from June 30 to July 2, during which he joined the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Secretary General of Asean Dato Lim Jock-Hoi, and the trade ministers of the 16 countries participating in the RCEP (RPC), namely the free trade partners of Asean 10 and Asean: Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. The group aims to complete negotiations this year to finalize the agreement by next year.
"It is time for us to change course, to be more realistic than idealistic, while at the same time looking after our own interests, we should also remember that a mutually beneficial agreement requires compromise", said Mr. Lopez
"We should also keep in mind that this mega-regional trade pact should be inclusive and progressive." The free trade agreement that began negotiations in 2013 is about on trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, litigation, settlement and other matters. , bids from some countries were still below the 92% target for tariff elimination, and the CPR committed to submit improved bids by mid – July.
During this time Mr. Lopez praised the progress made in the area of e-commerce in closing several articles in the key elements document of the RCEP. He said that e-commerce significantly lowers barriers to entry and operating costs for businesses, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which account for 99.6% of businesses recorded in the Philippines.
Once concluded, the RCEP will be one of the largest free trade agreements with the 16 participating countries representing nearly half of the world's population, 31.6% of world production, 28.5 % of world trade and one-fifth of global flows of foreign direct investment in 2016.
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