RCEP will soon take effect in boost for regional cooperation

Containers are unloaded from a ship at a port of Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, on Feb 17, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, signed by all 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and five more Asia-Pacific region countries including China, will take effect from Jan 1 next year, said China's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.

The Secretariat of the ASEAN, the official depository for the RCEP, announced on Tuesday that six member countries of the ASEAN, including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and four non-ASEAN countries – China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, had formally submitted their RCEP ratification, meeting the conditions for the deal to enter into force in those 10 countries at the start of next year, said China's Ministry of Commerce in a statement.

The RCEP would enter into force 60 days after ratification by at least six ASEAN countries and at least three non-ASEAN countries, according to the agreement signed in November last year.