State leaders wave for a group photo taken on Tuesday (15/11/2018) during the opening ceremony for the 13th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Singapore. The EAS regional forum is being held as part of the 33rd ASEAN Summit.
The 33rd ASEAN Summit emphasized the importance of unity and centrality in ASEAN in building the community, increasing its relevance and engagement with partners.
In a joint statement issued at the end of the three-day summit in Singapore on Thursday, the summit also reaffirmed the commitment of the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries to make regionalism and multilateralism the main bases for promoting cooperation in the region (Kompas, 16/11/2018)
Nevertheless, in the economic and trade fields, ASEAN and six partner countries (ASEAN + 6) again failed to reach an agreement regarding issues that have been the stumbling block to the agreement of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was originally expected to be signed at the three-day summit in Singapore.
The RCEP is the world\'s largest free trade agreement, which excludes the United States, but is supported by China. By involving 10 ASEAN countries and six other countries in the Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) region, the RCEP is expected to cover half of the world\'s population.
Although it failed to be signed this year, trade ministers of ASEAN and its six partners hope the RCEP can be signed and implemented in 2019. They have failed to meet the three deadlines related to RCEP since the negotiations on RCEP began in 2013. The implementation of the RCEP is expected to increase trading volume in ASEAN by 92 percent. The agreement on the RCEP will also be a record of ASEAN\'s success in bringing together large economies, such as China, India, Japan and South Korea, in a single comprehensive trade agreement.
In the midst of uncertainties in the global situation, especially as a result of protectionist policies and a trade war that was started by the US, the agreement of the RCEP would be a strong signal of the commitment of countries in the region to free trade, considering that the impact of the trade war has been felt by all countries in the region.
Various circles are worried that the US-China trade war will continue and even to escalate in 2019. Meanwhile, the WTO as the only global trade safety net remains toothless.
In the midst of this situation, the agenda of regional liberalization of trade and architecture based on open, transparent and inclusive rules is believed to be the key to the sustainability of regional economic growth, which is very dynamic and has become the locomotive for global growth, and is highly dependent on trade.
Now ASEAN+6 is entering a critical point in the negotiation process regarding trade liberalization in the region, especially regarding goods, investment and services market access. Although it has made significant progress in the discussion regarding seven of the 18 chapters of the agreement in the RCEP, a number of issues remain stumbling blocks to the agreement. They include India’s objections to opening up the market for free competition, especially with China.
However, at the summit in Singapore, the Indian delegation began to signal its willingness to progress incrementally toward the RCEP agreement.
