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- Herausgeber: Bentham Science Publishers
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) is a free-trade deal between 10 ASEAN member states and Australia,China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. It is the world's biggest regionaltrade deal, and it will create the world's most populous trade area. Thisedited collection features 10 contributions from multidisciplinary authors andis meant to share research and best practises on different aspects of the RCEP.It presents research projects that contribute to the discussion about the theory,lessons learned, and business strategies, to give a better understanding of theRCEP and how it can shape policy in member countries. The themes in eachchapter can also serve to evaluate reports on the RCEP's overall progress. Thebook covers a broad range of subjects, including an overview of the RCEP,digital economy, peer-to-peer lending, international e-commerce, big data, ICTreadiness and much more. This work is a key source of information and referencefor RCEP development for academics and researchers (in economics and politicalscience), government and trade organisations and policymakers interested in theRCEP. Members of the general public who want to understand debates surroundingthe RCEP will also benefit from the information provided.
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FOREWORD
It is remarkable how little attention the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has garnered around the world, given the potential that this regional economic pact possesses to propel Asia into a new era of economic leadership. The 15-member countries that are signatories to the RCEP already host about 30% of the world's population and generate 30% of global GDP. Just what might transpire in regard to economic, social and environmental change in this important region should the RCEP foster the economic integration that it aspires to achieve is a deeply contextualized and nuanced question that lies at the core of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Potentials and Challenges.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Potentials and Challenges is a vanguard volume that puts forth one of the most comprehensive analyses of the largest economic alliance in the world. The analysis contained in this volume benefits significantly from the diverse expertise and perspectives of the co-authors deftly assembled by esteemed co-editors, Dr. Mahani Hamdan, Dr. Muhammad Anshari, and Dr. Norainie Ahmad, all hailing from the University of Brunei Darussalam.
A foundational theme of the book centers on exploring the impact that the RCEP will have on catalyzing innovation in the region and what that might mean for national economic development and economic inclusiveness. Many of the contributing authors share a belief that connectivity and e-commerce alliances stand to yield cross-border successes that were perhaps not possible prior to the Internet age. Interconnectivity enables a region that was once solely focused on a competitive race to the bottom to create a shared foundation upon which technology and big data can be leveraged by the region`s entrepreneurial SMEs to produce disruptive innovations that are commercialized through new grassroots financial models. While most of the contributing authors are optimistic about the potential of the RCEP, all have also been careful to remind the reader that inequalities in the region remain and historical animosities potentially hinder optimizing the impact of this important economic pact.
Indeed, the final two chapters explore two sub-themes that regional economic development experts are particularly concerned with: the influence of China and the need to ensure greater social inclusiveness and equality when it comes to catalyzing economic development. The manner in which China integrates its economic development strategy with the RCEP will arguably have the greatest influence on political dynamics in the region. Friend or foe; competitor or collaborator? Either way, China`s economic strategy will both influence and be influenced by the RCEP. Similarly, economic growth that does not promote economic inclusiveness and stimulate enhanced social governance stands to engender the same animosities that have scuttled previous attempts at economic integration in the region. An equitable sharing of benefits will play a key role in determining whether or not the RCEP improves well-being within member nations and enhances goodwill between member nations.
All of these important questions regarding the potential of the RCEP to guide the Asia-Pacific region to a new area of harmonious, collaborative, equitable and sustainable economic development are taken up by the authors of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Potentials and Challenges. For anyone wishing to delve into the nuances associated with the RCEP, this book is the definitive starting point.
PREFACE
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free-trade deal involving 10 ASEAN member states, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. It is the world’s largest regional trade agreement, and it will result in the world’s most populous trade area. The proposed edited book is the first on the subject of RCEP to be published. The book is multidisciplinary in nature and is intended to disseminate and discuss research and best practices on any element of RCEP. The book focuses on high-quality research projects that contribute to theory, lessons learned, best practices, and critical understanding and policy implications or formulation regarding the RCEP among member nations. Additionally, reports on the RCEP's general progress are examined in relation to the book's theme.
The book Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Potentials and Challenges is expected to become a significant source of information and reference for RCEP development, particularly in terms of promoting awareness, by incorporating conceptual, recent development, best practices, comparative assessment, business processes, as well as strategies and outputs from RCEP studies across multiple domains of knowledge. To assure the book's quality, each chapter was reviewed twice. Academicians and students who can use the chapters in this book as references for the latest developments in the RCEP, researchers in academia seeking a perspective on the RCEP, government organizations interested in the information about the RCEP, policymakers who need to understand the discussion about the RCEP, and members of the general public seeking information about the RCEP are likely to be readers.
The book covers a wide variety of topics, including an overview of the RCEP. The book is divided into ten chapters that cover the recent RCEP discussion on process, methods, and difficulties. Each chapter is summarized below.
Chapter 1 titled “An Overview of Regional Comprehensive Economics Partnership (RCEP)” by Mahani Hamdan, Muhammad Anshari, Norainie Ahmad, (Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Institute of Policy Studies), discusses that RCEP is a recently established Free Trade Agreement between Asia-Pacific countries with the goal of increasing trade between participating countries. RCEP established an integrated market with 15 members of the countries, which has facilitated the mobility of products and services among the participating countries. It aims to negotiate on trade in products and services, investment, intellectual property, dispute settlement, e-commerce, small and medium-sized firms, and economic cooperation. Currently, it is the world’s largest free trade agreement in terms of economic impact, and it has the potential to promote trade and integration among member countries. The chapter’s objectives are to evaluate the opportunities and challenges that RCEP is facing.
Chapter 2 titled “Integrating RCEP with Cross-Border E-commerce (CBE) Towards Accelerating Economic Recovery in ASEAN” by Mia Fithriyah (Indonesia Open University, Indonesia), states that connectivity is the basis of e-commerce development. E-commerce reinforces connectivity, and aims to promote a continuous stream of information, logistics, free cash flow, and so forth. A seamless connection between the virtual and physical parts of an e-commerce network could be demonstrated toward Cross-Border E-commerce (CBE). A region-wide e-commerce support environment with a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement would undoubtedly support economic stabilization. Notably, this model is positively in line with the restricted conditions during the COVID-19 outbreak (Anshari et al., 2021a). However, businessmen should improve connectivity-derived services via technology and the internet in order to add more value to the successful implementation of CBE. Considering today’s consumers are more complex, the COVID-19 economic turbulence has resulted in a severe bankruptcy storm for business areas worldwide (Hamdan et al., 2020). Hence, the potential and opportunities of CBE will be explained in detail in this study. The determinants of the successful adoption of CBE remain complex. Therefore, our framework allows us to assess the extent of concerns about CBE opportunities and the potential for accelerating economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chapter 3 titled “Economic Integration’s Impact on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” by Emil Ali (Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Institute of Policy Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam) and Muhammad Anshari (Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Institute of Policy Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam), affirms that this study examines how the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) affects the commercial and economic activities of RCEP member countries, including supply chain management (SCM), tariff reductions on trade, customs duty reductions, market expansion, and the likelihood of obtaining economies of scale in manufacturing. This chapter adopted a qualitative method approach, which involved reviewing current literature studies and interpreting them in order to make possible recommendations. The findings indicate that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will significantly impact industries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as textile and apparel supply chain integration, and that this will provide a significant opportunity for member countries to further improve their economic conditions. Additionally, improving the SCM leads to an increase in GDP, enabling many countries to achieve a favorable balance of trade and encouraging them to pursue innovation. The implementation of the RCEP agreement also has its challenges and needs to be addressed in order to make the adoption of RCEP a success.
Chapter 4 titled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution Landscape for RCEP” by Abdullah Al-Mudimigh (Dar Al Uloom University, Saudi Arabia) & Abdur Razzaq (Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Fatah Palembang, Indonesia), states that this chapter examines the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement in general, as well as how it contributes to the progression of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4th Industrial Revolution) (4IR). It primarily focuses on the RCEP, which was signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand in order to expand and strengthen engagements with one another and their relationships to Industry 4.0, whereby the potential issues and solutions are discussed in greater depth. It also highlights the security and privacy issues and thoughts on how 4IR might help countries improve their economies over the long term. The chapter includes reflections on experiences as well as an analysis of how the information contained in the agreement affects the growth of the RCEP agreement.
Chapter 5 titled “Disruptive Innovation Reshaping Future RCEP” by Muhammad Anshari, Norainie Ahmad, & Mahani Hamdan (Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Institute of Policy Studies), discusses the relationship between the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement and the advent of Disruptive Innovation. RCEP was signed in November 2020 by a total of fifteen countries, with the goal of advancing regional economic integration and exerting greater influence over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The main focus of this chapter is on assessing the benefits of disruptive innovation and trade under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). We performed a literature review and applied a SWOT analysis in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of disruptive innovation, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Disruptive innovation can be beneficial to the majority of RCEP countries, since it can raise market growth, increase profit, and increase the productivity of – and efficiency for, disruptive technologies used in manufacturing. On the other hand, the possible challenges may be detrimental to smaller emerging economies, whose employment rates may be adversely impacted, and local enterprises may be overshadowed as a result of the increased competition.
Chapter 6 titled “Is Big Data a Disruptive Innovation to RCEP?” by Ares Albirru Amsal (Faculty of Economics, Universitas Andalas, Padang-Indonesia), states that big data has a lot of potentials to increase international trade. As the largest free-trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can utilize big data and related technologies to create fair and mutually beneficial trade. With the main characteristics of volume, variety, and velocity, big data provides strategic advantages for businesses that use it. The data can be processed using descriptive, diagnostics, predictive and prescriptive analytics. However, not all RCEP members have the same level of data processing capability. Their IT development also varies. Therefore, decision-makers need to resolve issues related to data utilization, especially in terms of digital literacy, security, and privacy.
Chapter 7 titled “Financial Technology Innovation - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending in the RCEP Member States” by Rayna Kartika (Faculty of Economics, Universitas Andalas, Padang-Indonesia), investigates that Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) aims to strengthen the economy and the free trade agreement among 10 ASEAN member states (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and 5 partner states (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand). One of the ways to improve economic growth is to enhance the investment sector into start-ups and SMEs. Peer-to-peer lending platforms exist to ease the mechanism of funds lending and borrowing from investors to Start-ups and SMEs. Currently, the rise of P2P lending, particularly in RCEP member states, has boosted the economic growth and development of technology. The government assistance to set up the regulation regarding the mechanism of P2P lending has been carried out in order to create a clean and transparent practice of P2P lending among borrowers and lenders. Therefore, this chapter describes the introduction of RCEP member states and P2P lending, and the mechanism for adopting P2P lending platforms in RCEP member states.
Chapter 8 titled “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and ASEAN Sustainable Development Goals” by Blessing Gweshengwe (Department of Rural and Urban Development, Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe), explores that an economic partnership can play a significant role in poverty reduction in the countries involved in it. The partnership’s contribution to poverty alleviation is, however, a function of its scope and the nature of participating countries and could be constrained by various factors. Considering this, the chapter addressed whether the RCEP can contribute meaningfully to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 within the ASEAN region. This aspect is yet to be subjected to scholarly examination. The chapter examined the potential of the RCEP to help ASEAN countries to eradicate poverty, the factors that could jeopardise this endeavour and the measures that could be taken to address these factors. The chapter found that the RCEP could indeed contribute to the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 1 in ASEAN countries since it has the potential to contribute to poverty eradication. This is because of the partnership’s capacity to, among other aspects, drive economic growth, boost real convergence and optimise the poverty eradication potential of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the ASEAN region. This contribution may, however, be jeopardised with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, and because of political instability in some ASEAN countries. In order to mitigate the impact of both of these challenges, ASEAN countries could reinforce their social protection systems, intensify their commitment to the RCEP and address the needs of the losers in the RCEP.
Chapter 9 titled “Regional Trade Deal with China for a New Digital Economy” by Abdur Razzaq (Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Fatah Palembang, Indonesia), states that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will be one of the most important free trade agreements in the history of the Asia-Pacific region and the world. It will also be one of the most important agreements in the world. This is being done in an effort to improve trade ties across the Asian-Pacific region's economies. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread over the world, it has emerged as a topic that can have an influence on business. China is innovating in the way it trades by taking advantage of the digital economy to its advantage. China's economy benefits to some extent from this strategy. China’s economy recovers partly due to the implementation of this digital system, becoming the world's first to do so. Throughout the outbreak of COVID-19, the country has demonstrated that it is inventive and capable of supporting its economy and speeding its development. The RCEP agreement will have a greater impact not only on China but also on the participating members.
Finally, Chapter 10 titled “Empowering The Underprivileged Community through Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship” by Fahmi Ibrahim and Dayangku Rodzi Pengiran Haji Rahman from School of Business, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Brunei Darussalam, discusses increasing awareness of being socially responsible and addresses social problems involving various key stakeholders in the public and private sectors, as well as the corporate and businesses, and the community included. With social issues experienced globally, such as climate change, introducing diversity in society or eradicating poverty, it is imperative to use social innovation to improve or replace the way things are currently done. This paper aims to analyse the impact of social innovation of entrepreneurship to provide stable income to underprivileged and unemployed segments and youth. It discussed key elements that support the development of entrepreneurship to ensure sustainability and growth, to ensure the underprivileged segment and youth will continue to earn, thus reducing reliance on welfare assistance support. The research was conducted based on interviews and observation methods. Two significant projects investigated that employed the social innovation model, how they were applied and the implications to the society who participated in these projects. These include the process, the role of individuals and the collective action of key strategic stakeholders in managing and structuring the programs. It was concluded the importance of entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and empowering the targeted segment, such as the underprivileged, through entrepreneurship to provide employment and sustainable income. Recommendations were made in managing social issues, uncovering the importance of social inclusivity, social innovation in developing individuals and driving economic growth, involvement of all parties from the public and private sectors, as well as non-profit and non-government organization to expand the initiatives to include those who are entitled to receive the support.
After the summaries of the chapters included in the book, the book portrays and assesses RCEP’s overview, potentials, challenges and future directions. The book emphasizes quality, research-based studies that contribute to theory, lessons learned and best practices, critical understanding and policy formulation on RCEP. We hope you all find them useful and interesting for research, teaching and policy studies.
Thank you,
List of Contributors
An Overview of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
Mahani Hamdan1,*,Muhammad Anshari1,Norainie Ahmad1Abstract
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a recently established Free Trade Agreement between Asia-Pacific countries with the goal of increasing trade between participating countries. A total of twenty Chapters, seventeen Annexes, and fifty-four schedules of obligations are included in the agreement between its partners, with legal features correlating to the explorations of its interactions with member countries. RCEP established an integrated market with 15 member countries, which has facilitated the mobility of products and services among them. It aims to negotiate on trade in products and services, investment, intellectual property, dispute settlement, e-commerce, small and medium-sized firms, and economic cooperation. Currently, it is the world's largest free trade agreement in terms of economic impact, and it has the potential to promote trade and integration among member countries. The objectives of this chapter are to evaluate the opportunities and challenges RCEP faces. We focus primarily on secondary data gathered from scholarly journals and formal reports. RCEP has the potential to expand economic growth among the participating countries. However, one of the challenges that needs to be considered is that some countries may be in a less advantageous position, as the agreements made might affect their internal economic development. We argue that despite the numerous advantages of the Partnership, all members must be able to address the four major issues identified in this chapter if they were to benefit fully from the RCEP.
INTRODUCTION
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an agreement between two or more countries that are based on global regulation and is intended to create a free-trade zone between the cooperating countries (EduMaritime, 2021). Its primary purpose is to minimise trade restrictions between countries in order to expand business opportunities. This is accomplished through activities such as determining the
tariffs and duties that countries impose on imports and exports with the goal of reducing or eliminating trade barriers, thereby promoting international trade (The Balance, 2021). There are two economic elements of free trade agreements: trade diversion and trade creation, as well as free trade agreements for public benefits. Studies have shown that the introduction of these economic features will improve the overall national welfare of a country (International Economics Study Center, 1998).
The most recent free trade agreement (FTA) is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was signed on 12th November 2020, which involves countries in the Asia-Pacific region and creates uniform regulations for e-commerce, trade, and intellectual property. The RCEP is a free trade and multilateral agreement between Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam that includes the Asia-Pacific region (Hastuti, 2020; Swasdee et al., 2020).
RCEP intends to establish a substantive and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement that is WTO-compliant and transparent, and it will entail greater cooperation between ASEAN and its free trade agreement partners (Basu Das, 2015; Anshari, 2020). Aside from that, the trade bloc's broader economic objectives are to strengthen members' participation in regional and global production networks while simultaneously lowering the cost of trade or commerce and the shortfalls caused by multiple ASEAN-based trade agreements. Its most significant feature is that it aims to eliminate up to 90 percent of tariffs on imports between participating nations within 20 years of its implementation. In addition, it will define uniform norms for e-commerce, trade, and intellectual property rights protection (Zhou, 2020).
In this paper, we explore the advantages, potentials, and challenges of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), in view of the long-term viability for participating member nations and the global community in general.
REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP (RCEP)
The origins of the RCEP trade bloc can be traced back to 2006, when four countries, including Brunei, New Zealand, Chile, and Singapore, founded the Pacific Four (P4) grouping, and the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Peru expressed an interest in joining them in 2008 (Cheong and Teonzon, 2013). These countries began negotiations to form the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in the year 2009, which has since met with numerous challenges. ASEAN acknowledged that its relevance in East Asia could be adversely affected when the United States conducted the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations in 2009. Japan and Canada also expressed their willingness to join during the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Conference, which was hosted by the United States. In order to maintain its prominence, ASEAN has implemented a number of policies and mechanisms, including the establishment of the ASEAN Framework for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was formalised in 2012 and is currently in effect (Fig. 1).
Fig. (1)) ASEAN, RCEP, TPP (Source: Asiafoundation, 2015.The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a comprehensive trade agreement that aims to strengthen economic links between 12 nations, including Peru, Canada, Mexico and Japan, by creating a new single market that is comparable to that of the European Union. This will be accomplished by removing trade barriers, such as tariffs, and promoting cross-border trade in order to stimulate economic expansion along with the RCEP. Despite the proposed agreements signed among the countries in 2016, President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the TPP in 2017 was one of the primary reasons for the deal's collapse, along with discrepancies between decisions makers, and rising protectionism (Lyu, 2018).
The RCEP agreement on the other hand, is a relatively new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that was proposed in November 2012 by the ten member nations of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). These countries include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Another five countries, including Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, also took part in the pact (Gantz, 2016). Following eight years of initial negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the participating nations were finally able to reach a consensus on the accord on November 15, 2020 (The Scoop, 2020). The RCEP encompasses around thirty percent of the world's economy and covers two billion two hundred million people (The Scoop, 2020). India, however, had withdrawn from the Partnership, but the country has since been given the opportunity to re-join when it is ready in the future. Due to the unique barriers and challenges that the regional grouping has encountered, the negotiations have taken longer than expected despite a scheduled end of negotiations in 2015 (Shiao, 2018). Additionally, there were countries entering free trade agreements for the first time with one another, such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Thus far, 25 rounds of RCEP discussions have taken place, with the most recent round taking place in the month of February 2019. However, there was no significant progress at the time (Mahadevan & Nugroho, 2019).
In total, the RCEP agreement contains twenty chapters, seventeen annexes, and fifty-four schedules of obligations, which include market entry, guidelines and disciplines, and economic and technical partnerships (ASEAN, 2020a). One of the main goals of the Agreement is the creation of an advanced arrangement that is up to date with respect to shifting and evolving trade certainty factors, such as electronic commerce and a developing provincial value chain. Another goal is to enhance the prospects for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to grow, as well as in the complexity of the market race (ASEAN, 2020b). Another goal is the comprehensiveness of their exposure and the depth of their assurances, including trade-in amenities, which contain explicit criteria on monetary, communications, and professional facilities, as well as the provisional mobility of ordinary folks (ibid.). Furthermore, chapters on investment, small and medium-sized firms (SMEs), economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, government procurement, electronic commerce, legal and institutional sectors, and competition have also been established (ibid.).
Economic Growth
The RCEP agreement is a significant economic framework for participating nations. It is projected to contribute to the economic growth of its member countries and will become even more important following the pandemic (Anshari & Sumardi, 2020; Sugiantoro et al., 2020). The agreement brought with it new opportunities and growth for the country. Member countries collaborate with the other members of the RCEP, which strengthens international commercial connections. While the information and its impact with regard to the RCEP are still in their early stages due to the agreement's negotiations having only recently concluded late last year, the outcome can be predicted by analysing the respective reviews of the RCEP guidelines, as well as disruptive technology and stipulating for its possible benefits. To increase economic improvement and exertions, participating members must collaborate with the evolving patterns of incorporation. Under the Agreement, this will be accomplished through the enhancement of modernisation, production, and income. A key component of the RCEP is the advancement of digitisation. This strategy is expected to improve competencies in innovation, trade, and SME involvement, particularly in the context of e-commerce, and integration with the aforementioned disruptive technologies.
In developing countries, tariff reductions in the distant future as a result of participation in FTAs under RCEP have the potential to stimulate numerous investments by representatives internationally to improve global value chains (Flente and Ponte, 2017, cited in Mahadevan & Nugroho, 2019). Due to this, the reduction of tariffs on tradable products handled by the RCEP has become the primary focus of discussions (Sharma, 2018). Furthermore, while looking at the combined GDP of China and the United States, it can be seen that the combined GDP of both countries accounts for around 40 percent of global GDP, indicating that they are two of the world's greatest economies. As a result, it is possible that this will have a significant impact on other economies. A remarkable amount of GDP is received by developing and rising countries, in contrast to the GDP received by developed economies (Kawasaki, 2015, as cited in Mahadevan & Nugroho, 2019). Given that tariffs account for a significant portion of GDP in many countries, such as Korea, where tariffs account for 2.77 percent (Li et al., 2016), lowering supply chain impediments, rather than abolishing tariffs, will have a significant influence on welfare (Dey, 2020).
According to Kamada and Yoshida (2021), putting in place logistical arrangements that allow for local cross-border supply chains will serve to increase the international competitiveness of Japanese enterprises in the global marketplace. Specifically, Japanese firms have been constructing supply chains throughout the ASEAN area since the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which was announced in 2015. In recent years, they have increased their production networks, and their local output is expanding year after year, according to the company (Ahad et al., 2017). As a result, it has been thought that for Japanese manufacturers, procurement, manufacturing, and sales in optimal conditions that match the features of the societies, regional economies, and countries into which they have grown are of greater importance. To facilitate the globalisation of corporate activity, effective logistics must be in operation. In supply chain networks, transportation can play a key integrative role, especially as organisations compete strategically on the basis of cost, service, and timeliness. Regarding supply chain coordination, transportation, in general, is in a great position to combine and coordinate flows throughout the supply chain (Morash & Clinton, 1997).
As a new FTA, the RCEP addresses not only traditional trade policies such as tariff barriers but also 21st-century trade initiatives such as e-commerce, competition policy, and trade facilitation, which are topics that most current FTAs in the field have never addressed (Lewis, 2013; Wilson, 2015). The RCEP is considered as China's strategic reaction to the geopolitical ramifications of Asian policies. Textiles and apparels (T&A) is an important industry in the RCEP negotiations. The impact of RCEP on the integration of textile and apparel supply chains in the Asia-Pacific region has been explored by Lu (2019). In 2015, the sixteen RCEP participants exported $405 billion in trade and investment (54 percent of the total global exports) and imported $115 billion in trade and investment (31 percent of the world share) (Lu, 2019). Many of these T&A items are manufactured in the Asia-Pacific area as part of a collaborative supply chain. As the RCEP aims to significantly reduce current trade barriers between its participants, its implementation has the potential to promote regional T&A supply chain integration further and significantly alter the current trend of T&A trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
Methodology
We focus primarily on secondary data gathered from scholarly journals and formal reports. The most recent reports, spanning the years 1990 through 2021, were chosen for consideration. The reason for selecting such time periods was that they allowed for the use of the most recent data and the most relevant information in relation to the study on free trade agreements and the RCEP. The information contained inside each data set was gathered and examined.
Discussion
Globalisation, according to Masson (2001), is a phenomenon marked by greater trade, resources, and information flow, as well as increased individual mobility across boundaries. As a result of advancements in transportation and communication technologies, global relations have seen an increase in foreign trade, as well as the spread of ideas and culture throughout the world (Hamdan & Anshari, 2020; Razzaq et al.
