According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs on the 7th, in the first seven months of this year, China’s imports and exports to ASEAN reached 3.53 trillion yuan, up 13.2% year-on-year, and imports and exports to other member countries of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) increased 7.5% year-on-year. The growth rate of both data exceeded the level in the first half of this year.

Despite the complex and severe international situation and the repeated delays of the COVID-19 epidemic, RCEP has continuously released policy dividends since it came into effect on January 1 this year, providing new impetus for further deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN.

More than a thousand kilometers away, on the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi, China, in the production base of Guangxi Jingui pulp and Paper Co., Ltd. under Indonesia’s Jinguang Group Asia Pulp and Paper Co., Ltd., trucks transport white cardboard to the nearby Qinzhou Port Wharf every day, where the white cardboard will be packed and transported to Thailand and other ASEAN markets for packaging of drugs, cosmetics and electronic products.

Zhou Ju, the customs officer of the Logistics Department of Guangxi Jingui pulp and Paper Co., Ltd., said that according to the RCEP rules of origin accumulation, the raw materials imported by the company from ASEAN countries, such as wood chips, wood pulp, starch, etc., fully meet the origin accumulation standard of 40% of the value-added of export products after accounting, thus enabling customers to enjoy preferential tariffs and enhancing the competitive advantage of the enterprise.

At Kuantan port in Malaysia, a cargo ship loaded with Malaysian manganese ore set sail and sailed into Beibu Gulf port in Guangxi a week later. After the ore is landed, it will be sent to the smelting workshop of the South manganese industry group to be made into electrolytic manganese dioxide, which will be sold to China and exported to Japan. Finally, as an important raw material for new energy batteries, it will be embedded in the industrial chain of new energy vehicles.

Since RCEP came into effect, Malaysia’s manganese ore tariff has been further reduced, making this industrial chain connecting China, ASEAN and Japan more competitive in the international market.

At present, China and ASEAN are the largest trading partners of each other, and the accumulated direct investment of both sides exceeds 310 billion US dollars. After RCEP came into effect, many favorable policies such as tariff reduction and exemption, rules of origin accumulation and so on were implemented, and China and ASEAN Economic and trade exchanges became closer.

Analysts pointed out that RCEP has realized the coordination of regional economic and trade rules, accelerated the integration of regional industrial chains and supply chains, provided assistance for further deepening economic and trade relations between China and ASEAN, and also provided a strong driving force for regional economic development.

Weng Shijie, chairman of the new Asian Strategic Research Center in Malaysia, said that RCEP has coordinated the rules of origin, created a unified market for intermediate products, and promoted the establishment of regional supply chains. “It will bring more employment opportunities, higher economic growth and faster poverty reduction in the region, which is of great importance to ASEAN countries.”.

Lin Chuqin, chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, said that RCEP covers the Asia Pacific region with great growth vitality in the world. It is not only the main region for international cooperation of China’s industrial chain, but also the most important market for sales of goods and services between China and ASEAN. “RCEP covers such contents as reducing tariffs, opening up markets, reducing standard barriers, and opposing unilateralism and protectionism. It helps to build a relatively stable multilateral trade order in the Asia Pacific region, boost trade and investment confidence, further strengthen the resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain, and has important and far-reaching significance for the formulation of future global economic and trade rules.”