People visit the CAFTA & RCEP Gallery during the 19th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By LU Zijian

For the past two weeks, a series of events were held to boost regional and international cooperation, including the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits in Cambodia, the 17th Summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in Indonesia, and the 29th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Thailand.

In the time of unprecedented changes, China has been proactively working with regional and international partners to create a win-win situation. In particular, the cooperation under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been fruitful since its entering into force in January.

The trade volume between China and the other 14 RCEP members reached 8.32 trillion RMB for the first eight months of 2022, comprising 30.5 percent of China's total foreign trade, said Wang Shouwen, China International Trade Representative and vice minister of commerce, at a forum in September.

Under the RCEP framework, Wang added, China reduced duty of 880 million RMB on 38.1 billion RMB of imported goods that enjoyed preferential tariffs, while also enjoying tariff concessions of 910 million RMB on exported goods worth 143.3 billion RMB.

In addition, with a total value of five billion USD, over 100,000 RCEP certificates of origin were issued by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) for the first nine months of this year.

Zhang Zheren, deputy director general of Foreign Economic Research Institute, Academy of Macroeconomic Research, noted that RCEP significantly lowered the cost of trade in goods, and effectively promoted the free flow of all types of commodity elements among its members.

According to data from China's General Administration of Customs, the total value of import and export between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hit 4.7 trillion RMB for the first three quarters of this year, growing by 15.2 percent compared with that of last year. This also made ASEAN China's largest trading partner.