Take-up of Provisions of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership by Companies

Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Minister for Trade and Industry whether he can provide an assessment of the take-up rates of the provisions of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership by companies to date. ****

Mr Gan Kim Yong: As the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement only entered into force for Singapore earlier this year, more time will be needed to analyse the take-up rates among local businesses 1 .

MTI, Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the Singapore Business Federation are actively reaching out to companies to help them understand and utilise the RCEP Agreement, including through outreach sessions and by publishing three guidebooks on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, E-Commerce and Intellectual Property.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 14:

1 The Agreement entered into force on 1 January 2022 for 10 Parties, namely, Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam; 1 February 2022 for the Republic of Korea; and 18 March 2022 for Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines have yet to ratify the Agreement.