The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement will be a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership agreement among the ASEAN Member States and ASEAN’s FTA Partners. RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition and other issues. It is a process that has been developed among the 10 members of ASEAN (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam) and the six countries with which ASEAN has existing FTAs: Australia, China, Japan, Korea, India and New Zealand - which covers 28% of global trade and over half the world's population.

Negotiations for the agreement will recognise ASEAN centrality in the emerging regional economic architecture and the interests of ASEAN’s FTA partners in supporting and contributing to economic integration, equitable economic development and strengthening economic cooperation among the participating countries.

The RCEP Agreement will include provisions to facilitate trade and investment and to enhance transparency in trade and investment relations between the participating countries, as well as facilitate the participating countries’ engagement in global and regional supply chains.

This detail is laid out in the Guiding Principles document endorsed by leaders and is consistent with the vision of a comprehensive, modern and high quality outcome. New Zealand is pleased at this outcome as it allows us to be part of a major trade initiative in the dynamic East Asia region. Asia is an increasingly critical source of growth, markets, and innovation for New Zealand. The potential benefits for regional value chains are expected to have a big impact on New Zealand’s ability to do business around the world.