Can ASEAN+1 FTAs Be a Pathway towards Negotiating and Designing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement?

Abstract

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of five ASEAN 1 Free Trade Agreements and the ASEAN Economic Community to analyse the ease or difficulties in negotiating and developing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement by 2015 and beyond. The analysis suggests that the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement are the most comprehensive agreements and have deeper commitments as compared to the other ASEAN regional Free Trade Agreements (FTA). Despite some broad commonalities, there are significant differences across them in terms of the negotiating framework, coverage of issues, deadlines and depth of commitments. This lack of coherence across the ASEAN 1 Free Trade Agreements and varying domestic interests of negotiating countries would be a difficult task to harmonize under the RCEP agreement. Adding to this complexity are the geopolitics in the Asian region and the emergence of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which involves seven of the RCEP members. The article concludes that the potential success of the RCEP negotiation would depend on the extent to which countries that are part of this partnership can reach a consensus on – substantial tariff elimination coverage, a common market access schedule, comprehensive coverage of WTO-plus issues and behind-the-border integration measures that enable both physical and institutional connectivity.