The Fourth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Leaders’ Meeting was held on November 15. The ten ASEAN countries and 15 countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand formally signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), which marking the global largest free trade agreement was officially reached. The signing of the RCEP is an important step for regional countries to take concrete actions to safeguard the multilateral trading system and build an open world economy. It is of symbolic significance for deepening regional economic integration and stabilizing the global economy.
The agreement was initiated by the 10 ASEAN countries and invited six dialogue partner countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India, to participate. It aims to establish a 16-country free trade agreement with a unified market by reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
The negotiations were officially launched in November 2012 and involved more than 10 fields including small and medium-sized enterprises, investment, economic and technological cooperation, trade in goods and services. On November 4, 2019, the third "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" leaders' meeting issued a joint statement announcing that the 15 member states have concluded all text negotiations and substantially all market access negotiations, and will start the review of legal texts. India has not joined the agreement for the time being due to an important issue has not been resolved.
Jiahe County was established in 1639, covering an area of 699 square kilometers, governing 9 towns and 1 township, with a population of 420,000. It is one of the counties with the smallest area and the highest population density in the province.
