Written by The Banking Post
Bangladesh, along with Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Chile, is seeking to join the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade bloc.
The RCEP currently brings together China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and all ten ASEAN members. Officials from the bloc, meeting this week on the sidelines of ASEAN trade and economic ministers’ gathering in Malaysia, said there are few objections to welcoming new members and efforts will be made to integrate the four economies.
“We support any countries that are willing to join the RCEP,” Indonesia’s Vice Minister of Trade Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia’s Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the issue of membership expansion will be discussed when RCEP leaders meet in October, their first such summit in five years. The leaders are also expected to review and potentially upgrade the trade pact signed in 2020.
Analysts see the RCEP as a shield against tariffs imposed by the United States, though its provisions are considered less comprehensive than other regional trade agreements because of competing priorities among members.
