The fifth ministerial meeting of RCEP promotes membership expansion and upgrading, Asia-Pacific economic integration reaches a key node

China News Service, Beijing, September 25. On September 21, 2026, the fifth ministerial meeting after the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) was held in Manila. The meeting achieved two substantive results: First, it was agreed to set up a working group for new members to join Bangladesh, Chile, Hong Kong, and Sri Lanka, and RCEP expansion will enter a substantive advancement stage; second, a "Joint Scope Document" for RCEP upgrade will be formulated and the upgrade process will be announced at the 2027 ministerial meeting. In the fifth year of its effective implementation, RCEP has simultaneously promoted two key agendas: "membership expansion" and "upgrading", which will become an important node in the process of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region.

1. RCEP expansion is accelerating, and the blueprint for the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area is closer

The expansion will inject new impetus into RCEP’s expansion of market space and deepening industrial complementarity. RCEP covers about 30% of the world's GDP, population and trade share. In 2025, the total import and export of goods by RCEP members will exceed US$14 trillion, forming the world's most influential free trade and production supply chain cooperation network. Bangladesh’s labor resources and market potential, Chile’s mineral resource advantages and trans-Pacific economic and trade connections, Sri Lanka’s port shipping and hub status facing the Indian Ocean, and Hong Kong, China’s professional service capabilities will add new cooperation opportunities to this network. As the expansion process progresses, RCEP is expected to further connect the East Asian, South Asian and Latin American markets and promote the interconnection of resources, industries and service advantages. Among them, Hong Kong, China and Chile are both members of APEC. Their participation will expand the coverage of RCEP among Asia-Pacific economies and lay a solid market and industrial foundation for the construction of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area that APEC continues to promote.

The interconnection of regional markets relies on the support and guarantee of systemic institutional rules. RCEP establishes a common rules-of-origin framework based on existing bilateral and "10+1" free trade arrangements, promotes customs procedures and trade facilitation, and effectively reduces the institutional costs caused by rule fragmentation. In 2025, intermediate goods trade within the RCEP region will reach US$3.6 trillion, contributing 65.2% to intra-regional trade growth, reflecting the strong driving role of cross-border industrial collaboration. With the addition of new members, RCEP's cumulative rules of origin are expected to cover more supply sources and production links, and the production and supply chain cooperation network mainly in East Asia will expand to a wider Asia-Pacific region. As the key path to the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area, RCEP promotes membership expansion and upgrading, deepens dialogue and exchanges with regional arrangements such as CPTPP, and will continue to accumulate conditions for wider market opening and deeper rule integration, and promote Asia-Pacific economic integration from a long-term blueprint to a reality.

2. The RCEP review has been upgraded, and the multilateral trading system has more momentum.

The review and upgrade is an important measure for RCEP to proactively adapt to changes in the global economic and trade landscape and support the multilateral trading system. The Joint Statement of the Fifth RCEP Ministerial Conference reiterated that members are committed to avoiding measures inconsistent with the obligations of the agreement, maintaining an open, free, fair and rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at the core, eliminating unnecessary trade barriers, strengthening investment facilitation, supporting WTO reform, and deepening regional cooperation through constructive dialogue. The 2027 review upgrade will help transform these joint commitments into more specific institutional arrangements. All parties will further implement opening up commitments, improve policy transparency and strengthen regulatory cooperation, create a stable, transparent and predictable business environment for enterprises, enhance market confidence with the certainty of regional cooperation, and inject positive energy into the multilateral trading system with practical actions.

All parties will also formulate a "Joint Scope Document" for RCEP upgrade, and while advancing the built-in agenda, consider including provisions related to modern and emerging issues. In the future, on the basis of deepening the facilitation of trade in goods, service trade and investment opening, we can further explore the connection of rules in the fields of digital trade, green economy, supply chain cooperation and other fields. RCEP members have very different economic sizes and development levels and are highly representative. By taking into account the needs for economic and industrial opening up and domestic policy supervision needs, and strengthening economic and technological cooperation, it is expected to form a rule practice that combines high-level openness and inclusive development. These experiences can provide useful reference for the improvement of WTO multilateral rules, help all parties to enhance understanding and build consensus on new issues, and make regional cooperation a positive force in maintaining and improving the multilateral trading system.

3. RCEP dividends are shared and development results benefit all parties.

The value of open cooperation ultimately lies in the actual results of joint development of all parties. In 2025, intra-RCEP trade will reach US$6.0 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 5.6%; foreign direct investment attracted US$416.49 billion, accounting for 25.6% of the world's total foreign investment. In the first half of this year, the vast majority of members' exports to the RCEP region achieved double-digit growth year-on-year. China and other RCEP members have actively fulfilled their commitments and launched economic and technological cooperation projects in areas such as new energy vehicle standards and trade facilitation capacity building to help less developed members of ASEAN better utilize RCEP to integrate into the regional value chain. According to Chinese customs statistics, from January to August this year, exports to China from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia increased by 44.1%, 37.1% and 20.9% respectively year-on-year. RCEP is implemented in coordination with other free trade agreements in China-ASEAN and other regions, and the dividends of openness are accelerated. The "RCEP Regional Cooperation Outlook 2026 Annual Report" recently released by the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce at the China-ASEAN Expo shows that the proportion of surveyed companies that have used various preferential trade agreements in the RCEP region has steadily increased to 73.5%.

The simultaneous advancement of membership expansion and upgrade will expand the scope of benefits for more participants. For existing members, as the RCEP circle of friends continues to expand, preferential tariffs and origin accumulation rules are expected to cover a wider market, providing more choices for enterprises’ cross-border procurement and production layout. For parties applying to join, joining RCEP not only means access to the free trade market with the largest population in the world, but also a smoother integration into the Asia-Pacific regional production network and new opportunities for economic growth. What is particularly worth looking forward to is that the RCEP upgrade will discuss emerging rules such as digital trade and green economy, which will not only accelerate the digital green transformation in the region, but also promote the development of emerging industries and create a new engine for regional economic growth.

4. RCEP links with CAFTA3.0, and China’s free trade zone network expands globally

China has always been a staunch advocate and active promoter of open cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. As the free trade agreement with the largest population and largest economic and trade scale in the world, RCEP is also an important cornerstone for China to accelerate the construction of a high-standard free trade zone network for the world. In recent years, China has firmly promoted high-level opening up to the outside world and has taken solid steps in the construction of free trade zones. So far, it has signed 25 free trade agreements with 32 countries and regions. Free trade zones have become a stabilizer and source of power for China's economic development. In the first eight months of this year, the total trade in goods between China and its free trade partners was close to US$2.5 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 34.4%, and its contribution to China’s foreign trade growth during the same period reached 68.5%. China continues to deepen the construction of free trade zones, expand its free trade "circle of friends", and use its own open practices to provide new opportunities for Asia-Pacific regional cooperation and global economic growth. In particular, version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is about to be implemented, expanding new space for cooperation in key areas such as digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity. It will be coordinated with the expansion and upgrading of RCEP to form a new free trade pattern of mutual learning of rules, complementary advantages, and mutual promotion of development. This will not only consolidate the foundation for cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, but also provide strong support for the global expansion of China's free trade zone network.

Currently, the global industrial and supply chains are accelerating adjustments, digitalization and green transformation continue to generate new demands for cooperation. All parties are more willing to deepen open cooperation. To further expand and strengthen RCEP, there is broad space and common interests. Looking to the future, all parties should adhere to openness, inclusiveness and ASEAN's central status, strengthen policy communication, form cooperation synergies, implement RCEP with high quality, coordinately promote membership expansion and review upgrades, and allow more market entities, including small, medium and micro enterprises, to share the dividends of the agreement. Promote the synergy between RCEP and China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning with other Asia-Pacific regional trade arrangements, expand the positive spillover effect of RCEP on global trade and investment, and build RCEP into the main platform for the construction of the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area and the Asia-Pacific Community. By transforming open consensus into pragmatic actions and cooperation potential into development results, RCEP will surely make greater contributions to the common prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and even the world.

(Authors Yuan Bo and Wang Rui, researchers at the Asia Institute of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce)