Deciphering RCEP: a deep dive into financial services treaty language in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

ABSTRACT The recently signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement is likely to have a profound impact on the dissemination and integration of new regulatory standards for financial services in the Asia-Pacific region. By employing a text-as-data approach, this article measures the design of RCEP financial services rules in the regional trade agreements universe. This article finds that, first, RCEP has significantly deviated from the GATS financial services rules. Second, the textual source analysis of the RCEP financial services rules treaty language does not show that they are influenced by any single national text with overwhelming force, but by multiple textual sources in the Asia-Pacific region. China and the ASEAN have a more limited influence than expected, but the existing treaty languages of other major developed countries in this region, namely South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Singapore, has been primarily incorporated into RCEPs financial services rule. Besides, even if the United States is not the contracting party, considerable traces of its indirect influence can be found.