Two RCEP Chapters Finalised

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 (Bernama) -- The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has finalised two chapters out of 21, says Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister II Ong Ka Chuan. He said the chapters were on the economy and technical cooperation and small and medium-sized industries. “The other chapters are being discussed more intensively to ensure they can be finalised as soon as possible,” he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2018 in the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysian Parliament) on Thursday. Ong said the openness and flexibility demonstrated by China, India, Japan and South Korea in the 20 rounds of negotiations carried out until October 2017 had helped facilitate the negotiating processes. However, the stance and high standards adopted by Australia and New Zealand, coupled with inflexibility on the part of a number of ASEAN countries, had made it difficult to reach a compromise, he said. “The progress achieved in the RCEP negotiations to-date shows how complicated and challenging it is to finalise this negotiation,” Ong said. However, with the majority of the working group having achieved progress and target set, he said, the ministers from RCEP member countries had urged participants to be flexible so as to reach a settlement on the major issues and come to a conclusion on outstanding matters. “The matter will be discussed further by the ministers and heads of state of RCEP countries in a meeting to be convened in conjunction with the 31st ASEAN Summit, which will be held from Nov 10-14, 2017, in the Philippines,” he said. -- BERNAMA