To begin with some definitions,
RCEP is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and one of the more important free trade agreements being negotiated today. And that's saying something. The sixteen participating countries formally launched their negotiations at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in November 2012 and set themselves the goal of a finished agreement in 2015.
Peter Drysdale is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Australian National University. According to his biography on the University's website, Professor Drysdale "is widely recognized as the leading intellectual architect of APEC."
Today's quote is from a Xinhua article, which highlights Professor Drysdale's views on the various trade negotiations in the Asia Pacific on the eve of this year's APEC meetings in Beijing. USTR
Michael Froman is due to leave for China on November 6.
President Obama will depart shortly thereafter on a trip that will take him to China, Burma, and Australia. The APEC ministerial meeting is set to begin on 7th, and the Leaders' meeting is slated for the 10th and 11th.
Many if not all of APEC's 21 members are involved in one or more FTA negotiations, and almost certainly some of these will move forward over the next couple of weeks, in one Beijing setting or another. That includes APEC's own long-term goal of a
Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), but with a caveat.
The caveat was highlighted in an eye-catching Wall Street Journal story on FTAAP. The provocative first paragraph announced:
"The U.S. has blocked China's effort to use a leaders' summit to begin negotiations on a free trade zone spanning the Pacific, people close to the matter said. ..."
Assuming that assessment is correct, USTR nevertheless seemed to be making an effort to soften the blow. Today's Morning Trade from POLITICO quoted a USTR response to the Journal's story to the effect that the U.S. is working with China on a "constructive" plan for advancing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.
Professor Drysdale also seemed to be responding to The Wall Street Journal's report when he told Xinhua:
"Some see the goal of a Free Trade Area of Asia and the Pacific as immediately important, but that is a long term goal that can only easily be achieved after RCEP has been completed perhaps alongside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which has proven more difficult to negotiate than expected."
Finally, a note on the RCEP players. The sixteen countries negotiating this agreement are the ten members of ASEAN plus six others.
ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and its members are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Cambodia.
The six others are: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
We assume they are all going to be in Beijing next week. No, India is not a member of APEC, but
President Xi has invited
Prime Minister Modi to attend, and we expect he will be there.