Remember this Acronym: RCEP by Lisa M. Keefe, meatingplace.com
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n mid-November, 15 Asian and Oceanic countries signed on the line that is dotted to form the world’s largest multi-country trade agreement, accounting for one-third of the global economy and half the global population. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has been in the works at least since 2018, as trade conflicts between the U.S. and various partners, including China, were heating up. The countries included in the partnership are Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singap ore, T hailand and Vietnam. It is the first such major global free trade agreement that is not anchored by the United States. Rather, China’s is the largest economy in the bloc. The representatives signed the agreement at a ceremony in Viet Nam. The pact is “expected to give a strong boost to trade and investment liberalization in the region,”
according to a statement by the Vietnamese government. “RCEP is the world’s biggest free trade area measured in terms of GDP and is expected to help signatories to mitigate the crippling cost of the coronavirus and ease financial pain.” The RCEP is less comprehensive than the Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which President Trump withdrew in 2017. China has been imported record levels of consumer-oriented food products, including beef pork and chicken — $73 billion worth in 2019, according to USDA — but the U.S. share of that business has been slipping. The phase one bilateral trade deal signed between the U.S. and China in January has accounted for some gains in China’s food purchases. While China may not meet the first-year targets under the “phase one” trade agreement, its purchases could total $31 billion over 12 months, said Iowa State economist Wendong Zhang at a farm conference in November. Joe Schuele, vice president of communications for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, noted in an email sent to Meatingplace that while the U.S. meat industry faces tariff disadvantages in some RCEP countries,
those tariff gaps predate this agreement. “While RCEP is touted as the world’s largest trade agreement, USMEF does not expect a major impact on red meat trade,” he said. “In many cases the red meat-exporting countries involved in RCEP had already secured lower tariff rates through bilateral trade agreements or other regional pacts. For example, Australia and New Zealand each already had trade agreements with all of the participating countries.” This item was updated to include additional information from USMEF.
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