Government Submits RCEP Ratification Consent Bill to National Assembly

President Moon Jae-in attended the signing ceremony of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA), held at the Blue House in November last year. He applauded as the signed document was handed over to Lim Jock Hoi, Secretary-General of ASEAN.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] On the 1st, the government submitted the ratification proposal of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to the National Assembly.

RCEP is a multilateral trade agreement involving a total of 15 countries: 10 ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and 5 non-ASEAN countries (Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand).

The trade volume of the signatory countries amounts to $5.6 trillion (approximately 6,656 trillion KRW), the gross domestic product (GDP) is $26 trillion (approximately 3,901 trillion KRW), and the population is 2.27 billion. These figures represent 31.9%, 30.8%, and 29.7% of the global total, respectively.

Previously, at the 2020 summit, the heads of the RCEP signatory countries signed the agreement and declared that each country would promptly proceed with domestic ratification procedures to ensure the early implementation of the RCEP agreement.

Accordingly, our government, in accordance with relevant laws, closely communicated with related ministries, industries, and stakeholders to prepare this ratification proposal and submitted it to the National Assembly.

According to the agreement text, RCEP will come into effect on the 60th day after at least six of the 10 ASEAN countries and three of the five non-ASEAN signatory countries deposit their instruments of ratification with the ASEAN Secretariat, which is the depositary. The agreement will not apply to signatory countries that do not submit their instruments of ratification.

The trade volume between Korea and RCEP countries was approximately $484 billion (about 575 trillion KRW) last year, accounting for 49.4% of Korea's total global trade volume of $980.3 billion.

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