RCEP delivers prominent dividends: Chinese official

Visitors view commodities at the seventh China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 20, 2022.(Xinhua/Zhao Ge)

URUMQI, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Trade between China and the other 14 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members reached 8.32 trillion yuan (about 1.20 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first eight months of this year, accounting for 30.5 percent of China's total foreign trade, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said Tuesday.

Wang, also China's international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce, made the remarks at a forum of the ongoing seventh China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Since the RCEP came into force on Jan. 1 this year, it has delivered increasingly prominent dividends to companies through tariff concessions, trade facilitation, and other policies, he said.

Driven by the world's largest free trade deal, the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation has been markedly raised in East Asia, and the region's business environment has seen continuous improvement with growing confidence in economic recovery, said Wang.