Assessing the Impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on ASEAN Trade

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a regionwide free trade agreement (FTA) linking the ten ASEAN economies to their "+5" partners, namely Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. It covers both trade and non-trade related issues ranging from rules of origin and trade facilitation to intellectual property rights and investment. This study examines the likely impact of RCEP on trade alone, taking into account the fact that all its members are already participants in a number of other FTAs. Using latest FTA data from the WTO on imports and exports, this study reveals that tariff reduction under RCEP will erode ASEAN's trade preferences provided by existing FTA partners, while reallocating import sources of ASEAN countries towards more efficient RCEP partners.