According to China's Ministry of Commerce, the 4th ministerial meeting for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has just ended; the ministers of commerce from the 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand reaffirmed that the RCEP negotiation should be finalized as soon as possible, and there are another two rounds of negotiations in this month and in October.

Opinions are divided on whether RCEP negotiations can be completed this year.

The research team at ANBOUND Consulting believes that it would be difficult to reach the final agreement on RCEP by the end of this year. China should seize the opportunity when TPP is facing resistance, and systematically merging RCEP and Belt & Road Initiative, and realize the RCEP’s strategic and geo-political value.