Analysis of the far-reaching impact of RCEP signing on cross-border e-commerce sellers

On November 15 last year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was officially signed and finalized during this year’s two sessions. As an important gathering place for global e-commerce, the cross-border e-commerce market in the Asia-Pacific region has undoubtedly been profoundly affected by RCEP. Based on the summary of the RCEP agreement, we can summarize six aspects that are extremely beneficial to cross-border sellers. The specific contents are as follows:

1. Trade Facilitation
   RCEP allows and promotes the use of paperless trade such as electronic certification and electronic signatures, thereby enhancing the legal validity of electronic documents. This provision makes trade management more convenient for all contracting parties and promotes the development of e-commerce.

2. Customs Tariff Policy
   With the popularity of e-commerce, the contracting parties unanimously agreed to follow the decision of the WTO Ministerial Conference and continue not to impose tariffs on e-commerce. This policy helps reduce the cost of cross-border transactions and promotes an increase in transaction volume.

3. Accelerating digitalization
   As more and more consumers accept online transactions, ASEAN countries have huge potential for digital operations. The implementation of RCEP will accelerate the application of technology in these countries, break down barriers to social and economic development, and provide new vitality and power for the consumer market.

4. Domestic sales of products shift to exports
   Currently, China is facing overcapacity, while consumption levels remain at a medium level. The signing of RCEP will promote the popularity of e-commerce and enable more unsaleable Chinese products to enter overseas markets through cross-border e-commerce models. This is the future development trend.

5. Construction and operation of overseas warehouses
   With the further development of the logistics industry, it has become more convenient to set up and operate overseas warehouses. Such a change has significantly improved the operational efficiency of cross-border sellers and will be a positive change for the vast majority of merchants.

6. Optimized trading currency channels
   At present, the coordinated development of currencies between the RMB and ASEAN countries is still insufficient. The existing mainstream centralized platforms lack a unified cross-border payment channel for ASEAN, and the clearing process of the SWIFT channel is too lengthy, resulting in low efficiency and high cost of cross-border payments. The implementation of RCEP requires more efficient and applicable payment conditions to promote a virtuous cycle in the market.

Based on the market conditions of the signatory countries of RCEP, especially in Southeast Asia, if the contracting parties can jointly commit to the development of e-commerce, China’s cross-border e-commerce will usher in more choices and opportunities. Compared with mature markets in Europe and the United States, emerging Southeast Asian markets are more likely to play a key role in the current consumer economic dilemma.