The ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) together with five other Asia-Pacific countries; China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan agreed  to sign the world’s largest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) also called as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Sunday, 15^th November 2020. Hosted by Vietnam virtually, this deal aims at establishing a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, mutually beneficial economic partnership and promote investment. 

         “The signing, marks our strong commitment to multilateralism. This is a historic day.” said Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. It is due to RCEP is a mega regional trade deal that involve a third of the world’s population, and about 30% global gross domestic product.

What is the benefit for the importers?

This pact brings several benefits for the importers as countries agree to simplify their customs procedures and enhanced trade facilitation provisions, eliminating tariffs of at least 92% of goods amongst the participating countries within 20 years, and straightening the rules of origin.

Furthermore, as an importers you are easier to expand your source countries since this agreement is allowing you to reduce costs and time by authorizing you to source your product anywhere within the bloc without meeting separate requirements for each country. For instance, under the RCEP, China commits to eliminate tariffs on 86 percent of Japan’s exports, including auto parts. The other benefit is importers can get more profit and boost the sales from the lower prices.

What you should consider before importing?

As an importer, you definitely want your products to meet with your standards and your consumer’s expectations. Making sure your product meets your quality is very important.

Doing Pre-Shipment Inspection can be your problem solving. Once your products are 80% produced and packed, Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) in Indonesia is performed on-site by Excellencial’s quality inspectors. Based on a systematic protocol of units randomly selected from all batches of your order, it complies with statistical sampling procedures and industry standard processes to ensure that quality, quantity, packaging and labeling conform to your specifications and approved master samples.

However, you can specify when booking this service if you want 100% of the products to be ready and to be inspected. Every piece of product will be inspected and repacked and all defective goods will be sorted out.