Perhaps one reason is that while TPP is US-led, RCEP is said to be China-led and given the negative image of China over the territorial disputes in the SCS/WPS, human rights issue, there is less enthusiasm by the public to be so engaged with them.
I am reposting some recent news in the region about RCEP. Thanks to @RCEPNews for these leads.
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"“We are facing a lot of opposition from domestic
industries, especially from the steel industry, against opening up the sector
for competition. Our domestic steel price is $50 (per tonne) more than
international prices. How is this acceptable? We are telling the steel industry
don’t say the entire steel sector should be out of RCEP. We are asking them to
give us a few tariff lines where we can negotiate. But they are adamant. We
have to give somewhere to get somewhere else. If India will become too
conservative and protective, we will be out of the race. Ultimately, it is
going to be a call taken by the Prime Minister’s Office,” a government official
said on condition of anonymity.
Sanak Mishra, secretary general and executive head of
Indian Steel Association, said he is convinced steel should not be part of
negotiations in RCEP or any other future free trade agreement (FTA). “India is
a steel non-mature economy. If we open up for steel imports, then we will
become an import dependent country for next 30 years. India has capacity and
capability to produce steel for its own consumption. We should only import
steel which we cannot produce here which is only 7% of our domestic
consumption. We will keep up the pressure on the government not to include
steel in RCEP negotiations,” he added." July 08, 2015
"Speaking at the conference, Vice Director of the
Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) Vo Tri Thanh highlighted that
RCEP is relevant to Vietnam’s outlook on fostering economic integration with
comprehensive economic reforms.
Pham Binh An, Director of the WTO Integration Support
Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, said the RCEP pact stipulates drastic reductions on
trade tariffs, which will have major positive influences on Vietnam as the
country is experiencing a trade deficit with some of the regional nations.
Vietnamese enterprises need to map out effective
import-export strategies, he underscored, saying RCEP commits to cut down a
raft of tariffs, restructuring trade among well-developed countries in the
region." July 10, 2015. http://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/.../rcep-agreement.../
"International Trade and Industry Ministry
Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria said a comprehensive
closed door meeting, that will gather all 16 countries involved in the RCEP,
would be held this Monday.
"The RCEP is an important negotiation for the
region. We are trying to see where the bloc is and what we can do to progress
this," she told reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Senior Economic
Official Meeting (SEOM) here Friday." July 10, 2015.
"Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
is in Kuala Lumpur to attend the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP) inter-sessional ministerial meetings.
"She reiterated the importance attached by India to
RCEP negotiations and conveyed India's continued commitment to work with other
countries to conclude a mutually acceptable RCEP agreement," the Commerce
Ministry said in a statement." July 13, 2015. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/.../64370525...
"India has got “singled out’’ for offering the
lowest market openings in goods at the recent ministerial meeting of the 16
countries negotiating a regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP)
pact. It is under pressure to improve its offers substantially.
New Delhi also conceded to the demand of RCEP members,
including the 10-member Asean countries, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia
and New Zealand, to agree to a separate group on e-commerce that will hold its
meeting early next month, a Government official told BusinessLine.
However, it got itself a breather as the ‘e-commerce’
group is one on cooperation and is not yet a negotiating one. “India need not
take any commitment immediately as the committee will have to meet to decide
its agenda. It will first start with exchange of information. We have some
breathing space,” a government official said." July 16, 2015. http://m.thehindubusinessline.com/.../article7430409.ece
""There is a sense of urgency for a deal among
the participating countries as they have set a deadline for negotiations at the
end of the year," Deputy Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee told a regular press
briefing.
"The countries are making considerable efforts to
move their negotiations forward," he added.
Woo, however, noted the countries were still at the stage
of setting a guideline or modality for market liberalization under the
envisioned free trade pact, which need to be followed by a possibly more
strenuous process of drawing up a list of products to be liberalized for each
country taking part in the multilateral negotiations." July 21, 2015.
"RCEP officials are at risk of eating a lot of
cheese (or a mountain of dough) on their hypothetical pizza.
The recent ministerial meeting in Malaysia appears to
have resulted in a determination that the negotiations will not conclude this
year as planned. This is actually very good news, since it provides more time
for officials to reach consensus and create higher quality final results.
But the rest of the discussions with RCEP ministers were
ominous. For example, officials are trying to figure out how to order one pizza
with different toppings on each side. India, in particular, is trying to create
market access commitments that vary across the 16 parties of the agreement.
South Korea or Singapore might get more liberalization (or pizza toppings) from
India than China will receive." -- Dr. Debora Elms, July 22, 2015. http://www.asiantradecentre.org/talkingtrade/
Great article here by Dr. Debora Elms of Asian Trade
Center (ATC) in Singapore. China already has 12 existing FTAs including
China-ASEAN FTA and China-Korea FTA.
Now with 7 on-going negotiations including RCEP,
China-GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) FTA, and China-ASEAN FTA Upgrade
Negotiations.
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See also:
Free Trade 45: Protectionism in Services, Peering at the ASEAN, March 12, 2015
Free Trade 46: Debate on TPPA and Liberalization in Malaysia, March 31, 2015
Free Trade 47: TPP, RCEP and IPR, May 11, 2015
Free Trade 48, WTO DG Azevedo in Manila, May 22, 2015
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