At 0:00 on January 1, RCEP came into effect for the 6 ASEAN countries and 10 countries including China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale, and the most development potential in the world officially set sail. At present, the development of the world economy is facing many challenges such as de-globalization and weak recovery. The entry into force of RCEP will surely add confidence to economic globalization, and will also bring new opportunities for inter-regional economic cooperation and China's opening-up.
As an important coastal opening-up province in eastern China, Shandong will see good news in 2021 in the field of opening up to the outside world. The import and export volume of foreign trade has repeatedly hit a record high, and the growth rate of the actual use of foreign capital has repeatedly ranked first among the top six provinces and cities in the country using foreign capital. Statistics show that in the first 11 months of 2021, Shandong's imports and exports to other RCEP member countries amounted to 937.19 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.4%. Among them, the export was 537.48 billion yuan, an increase of 28.9%, and the import was 399.71 billion yuan, an increase of 45.2%. The trade between Shandong and other RCEP member countries has become increasingly close. Standing at the new starting point of the 2022 New Year, Shandong can rely on the shareholder style of RCEP to do more in serving and integrating into the overall situation of the country's opening up.
First of all, Shandong can use Japan as a breakthrough to strengthen the stamina of opening up. The most important achievement in the RCEP agreement is that China and Japan have established bilateral free trade relations for the first time and reached a bilateral tariff concession arrangement, which is a historic breakthrough. Shandong and Japan are geographically close and economically integrated, so the significance of RCEP to Shandong is very different. Data show that in the first 11 months of 2021, Shandong's imports and exports to Japan achieved 168.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%, a rapid growth.
After RCEP comes into effect, Japan's final zero-tariff ratio for my country's agricultural products will increase from the current WTO 25% to about 56%, and the final zero-tariff ratio for my country's non-agricultural products will increase from 49% to about 95%. On the Chinese side, my country's final liberalization rate for Japanese products will gradually rise from about 8% now to 86%. According to the calculation of the static trade data between Shandong Province and Japan in 2020, in the first year that RCEP takes effect, Shandong Province can enjoy tariff reduction of about 380 million yuan in Japan; after RCEP completes the tax reduction process, Shandong’s imports from Japan can reduce tariff costs by about 900 million yuan. This is undoubtedly a great benefit for Shandong, which ranks first in the country in terms of agricultural output value, has a developed manufacturing system and is "close to water".
Shandong should take this opportunity to give full play to its location advantages, focus on expanding cooperation with Japan, and actively guide agricultural export enterprises and production bases in the province to make good use of RCEP-related policies, so as to further consolidate Shandong's leading position in the country's agricultural exports. And with the implementation of the tariff reduction policy, there will be some industries in Japan's Kanto, Kansai and small and medium-sized enterprises clustered areas for industrial transfer. Shandong should strengthen the precise investment promotion of the industrial chain and supply chain, focusing on Japan's top 500, industry leaders and advanced technologies. Small and medium-sized enterprises, carry out targeted investment promotion in the new generation of information technology, high-end equipment, high-end chemical industry, new energy and new materials, and further build the top ten advantageous industrial clusters, which will strengthen the stamina of opening up.
Secondly, Shandong should actively adjust the industrial layout and promote enterprises to "bring in" and "go out". A very important rule of the RCEP agreement is the rule of accumulation of origin. The so-called rules of origin can be understood as the "nationality" of the product. In the past, if the products of country A used too many parts and components of country B, they could not enjoy the tariff preferences set by country C for country A when they were exported to country C. However, under the RCEP rules of origin accumulation, any components from member countries can be used for domestic production, and RCEP tariff reduction policies can be enjoyed when products are exported to member countries.
Taking the garment textile industry as an example, many textile enterprises in Shandong have processing plants in Southeast Asia, wher labor costs are low and land costs are low, but there are many raw materials that cannot be produced in Southeast Asia due to technical reasons, or are inferior to domestic production. Due to the rules of origin, raw materials from Southeast Asia have to be used in the production of products exported to Japan, which affects the layout of the company's industrial chain. But after the RCEP comes into effect, these concerns will be gradually resolved.
Under such a system of rules, the cooperation among RCEP member countries will be closer, and a three-dimensional, all-round, multi-node production network, value chain and industrial chain will be formed with each other. The ten ASEAN countries have relatively fast economic development, very active manufacturing, abundant labor force and relatively low cost, and will become the base for low-end manufacturing and OEM; It will be a production base for mid-to-high-end products; New Zealand and Australia have developed agriculture and animal husbandry, and are very rich in natural resources. The division of labor between them will become more and more clear, and the complementarity will become stronger and stronger.
At the same time, RCEP has also made comprehensive and balanced investment arrangements in terms of investment liberalization and investment protection, and has put forward some protective measures for overseas investment, even including compensation issues such as the inability to continue investment due to political reasons, so as to help enterprises invest in the region Provides good protection. In this context, more Lu enterprises will also usher in a good opportunity to iterate on production capacity and update their layout. Shandong should take the opportunity to promote Shandong enterprises to adjust their industrial layout, mobilize development space, and attract more enterprises that are in line with Shandong's future development direction, so as to accelerate technological self-reliance and promote the transformation of old and new kinetic energy to achieve greater results.
Furthermore, Shandong should make good use of the rules of RCEP to actively promote the development of trade in services. In the RCEP agreement, all member states have made commitments to a greater degree of opening-up in service trade sectors such as finance, telecommunications, tourism, and transportation. For example, when my country joined the WTO, it promised to open about 100 departments. This time, it added 22 new departments including management consulting and manufacturing R&D. At the same time, it promised to further open 37 departments such as finance, law, construction, and shipping.
With the official entry into force of RCEP on January 1, the flow of factors of production and goods between member states has also accelerated, and trade in goods will increase significantly. R&D, technology, information, talent, design, patents and other production-related services demand, Demand for services related to trade in goods, such as warehousing, transportation, finance, insurance, etc., as well as demand for services such as tourism, pension, education, etc. accompanied by the flow of factors, will all increase significantly, and new formats and new models of service trade will be activated one by one. The market "cake" of domestic service trade will increase. This is a good opportunity for Shandong's service trade to improve quality and efficiency. Shandong should seize this opportunity period, make full use of the free trade policy under the RCEP framework, actively integrate into the regional value chain of RCEP member countries, accelerate the digestion, absorption and re-innovation of new technologies and knowledge, relying on big data, cloud computing, 5G , Internet of Things and other emerging information technologies, gather more high-end production factors, form an innovation system that organically integrates production, education, research and use, and help the service industry and service trade in-depth reform.
At the same time, it is necessary to deeply explore the complementarity of production factors among RCEP member countries, make use of advantageous factor resources to make up for the shortcomings in service trade, and continuously enhance health tourism, infrastructure construction, business services, offshore service outsourcing, and cross-border e-commerce. The degree of externalization of the service industry and other services will further promote the development of service trade in Shandong.
When the tide rises, the sea and the sky are wide, and it is time to set sail. The world's largest free trade zone has set sail. With the help of RCEP, Shandong will further shape its advantages in opening to the outside world, and show greater achievements in serving and integrating into the new development pattern.
