How can the Philippines seize the opportunities in services trade under RCEP?

Abstract

Despite being a wide-ranging trading arrangement (Ho 2020; Pearson 2020; Rivas 2020; Drysdale and Armstrong 2021), RCEP is considered a marginal regional trade agreement. This is because RCEP merely compiles the previous commitments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-states with its free trade agreement (FTA) partner economies in the Asia-Pacific region—Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand—collectively known as ASEAN’s FTA Partners (AFPs). However, even if it is a marginal regional trade arrangement, there are additional commitments made by AFPs beyond what they have committed in their respective FTA with ASEAN. These additional commitments reflect RCEP’s augmented benefits.