MANILA : The Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Tuesday that the bloc and its trading partners
will try to finish talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP) free trade agreement (FTA) next year.
In
a statement, ASEAN leaders said there were breakthroughs in the RCEP negotiations
this year, and they hope to deliver a free trade deal in 2018. "We
hereby instruct our Ministers and negotiators to intensify efforts in 2018 to
bring the RCEP negotiations to conclusion, and resolve to ensure they have the
necessary support to achieve this outcome," ASEAN said in a
statement.
The
regional bloc said that RCEP will need to consolidate the ASEAN''s free trade
agreements with its partners and build new economic linkages between ASEAN''s
partners that do not have FTAs with each other. RCEP will cover ASEAN''s 10
member-states and Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Source: Manila Times, Philippines Saturday, 18 November 2017