2月8日，驻卡拉奇总领事李碧建在巴基斯坦《金融日报》、《云雀新闻报》、《地区时报》、《独立日报》和《每日发言人报》等多家英语和乌尔都语媒体发表署名文章《RCEP—多边主义和自由贸易的胜利》。全文如下：

　　近日，区域全面经济伙伴关系协定（RCEP）签字仪式在越南首都河内举行，在东南亚国家联盟（东盟）、澳大利亚、中国、日本、韩国和新西兰成员国国家元首/政府首脑的见证下，各成员国贸易部长们签署了该协定。该协定是在新冠肺炎疫情常态下对地区和全球经济复苏的一次重大推动，中国总理李克强也称之为"多边主义和自由贸易的胜利"。

　　RCEP由东盟于2012年发起，经历8年共31轮艰苦谈判，特别是今年，成员国克服新冠疫情带来的巨大困难，终于在首脑会议期间签署了协定。这是东亚国家20年来经济一体化进程中的最大成果。现代、全面、高质量和互利的RCEP协定有20章和4个市场准入承诺附件，是一项前所未有的、由域内发达国家、发展中国家和最不发达国家参与的大型区域贸易安排。

　　RCEP协定拓展了东盟与参加区域贸易协定的非东盟国家之间自贸协定规则涵盖领域。在货物贸易章节中，15个成员国两两作出双边关税减让承诺。协定生效后，90%以上的货物贸易将得到零关税待遇。在服务贸易一章中，7个成员国采用负面清单方式作出承诺，而其他8个成员国选择正面清单承诺，并承诺在协定生效6年内转为负面清单。在投资章节中，所有成员国在制造业、农业、林业、渔业和采矿业方面都采用了负面清单办法，大大提高了政策透明度。此外，成员国还在知识产权、电子商务、竞争、政府采购和中小企业等领域制订了高标准的自由贸易规则。

　　根据RCEP规定，协定签署后，RCEP各成员国将各自履行国内法律审批程序。协定生效需15个成员中至少9个成员批准，其中至少包括6个东盟成员国和中国、日本、韩国、澳大利亚和新西兰中至少3个国家。

　　新签署的协定吸引了全世界的注意力，具有以下重要意义：首先，RCEP是当今世界上最大的自由贸易协定。该协定覆盖22亿人口，约占世界人口的30%，国内生产总值（GDP）达26.2万亿美元，约占全球GDP的30%，占全球贸易总额的近28%（根据2019年数据），RCEP是朝着全球贸易和投资规则的理想框架迈出的重要一步。其次，RCEP是区域内经贸规则的“整合器”。RCEP整合了东盟与中国、日本、韩国、澳大利亚、新西兰多个“10+1”自贸协定以及中、日、韩、澳、新西兰5国之间已有的多对自贸伙伴关系，尤其是在中日和韩日间建立了新的自贸伙伴关系。RCEP通过采用区域累积的原产地规则，深化了域内产业链、价值链；利用新技术推动海关便利化，促进了新型跨境物流发展；同时，成员国同意采用负面清单以推进投资自由化，提升了投资政策透明度。以上措施都将促进区域内经贸规则的优化和整合。再者，RCEP实现了高质量与包容性的统一。除了涉及货物和服务贸易以及投资的具体规定外，RCEP协定还包括知识产权、电子商务、竞争、中小企业、经济和技术合作以及政府采购等章节。RCEP协定充分照顾成员国之间的差异及其不同的发展阶段，以确保共享成果。该协定因为在货物贸易、服务贸易和投资方面自由化水平的提高，为区域企业在市场准入方面提供了广阔的机会。

　　在当今国际政治经济局势的大背景下，RCEP协定的签署显示了其成员国维持自由和公平贸易的巨大决心，无疑为区域和全球经济复苏和发展注入了新动力。

　　一是推动区域贸易投资自由化达到新水平。RCEP将实现区域内高水平开放。货物贸易方面，各成员国进一步相互开放市场，此前已建成双边自贸区的成员国，普遍加速降低关税税率或新增降税商品品种，此前尚未建成双边自贸区的成员国，取得了相互开放市场的重大成果。随着RCEP签署，区域内企业将拥有一个更加自由、开放、稳定、透明的大市场，必将获得更多合作机遇、更广发展空间。

　　二是提供区域经济发展新动力。RCEP作为全面、高质量、互惠的自贸协定，改变了区域内自由贸易协定碎片化的现状，首次在本区域形成统一的贸易投资规则体系。将显著降低区域内企业的经营成本，带动企业重构区域内的供应链和价值链，优化区域内的商品、技术、服务及资本流动，有助于构建一个更加稳定、繁荣的东亚经济圈。东亚地区结束了过去以双边和小区域合作为主的“初级阶段”模式，大步走向更大范围区域经济一体化的崭新时代, 为区域经济发展提供新动力。

　　三是开创开放型世界经济新局面。当前，国际格局深刻调整，保护主义、单边主义上升，不确定不稳定因素明显增多，世界经济增长低迷，国际贸易和投资大幅萎缩。RCEP的签署，显示了对开放、包容和以规则为基础的多边贸易体系的支持，符合全球化和区域经济一体化发展大势，顺应和平、发展、合作、共赢的时代潮流，为构建开放型世界经济注入了强劲动力，提振了全球经济信心，有利于促进区域和全球经济复苏和发展。

　　中国将加大深化改革力度，尽快履行承诺。中国将与包括巴基斯坦在内的所有国家一道深化现有经贸合作，为构建人类命运共同体贡献力量。

　　英文原文如下：

　　RCEP – The victory of multilateralism and free trade

　　The signing ceremony of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) was held via video conference in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam recently. In the witness of the Heads of State/Government of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, the RCEP Ministers signed the Agreement which is a major boost to regional and global economic recovery under the new normal of COVID-19. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called it “a victory of multilateralism and free trade”.

　　RCEP was initially launched by ASEAN in 2012. After 8 years of negotiations, Member States held 31 rounds of arduous negotiations. This year in particular, Member States have overcome enormous difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak, and finally made the Agreement signed. This is the outcome of the constant economic integration process of East Asia in 2 decades. With 20 Chapters and 4 market access commitment annexes, the modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial RCEP agreement is an unprecedented mega regional trading arrangement comprising diverse economies of developed, developing and least developed of the region.

　　The RCEP Agreement includes areas and disciplines which have not been previously covered in the existing free trade agreements (FTA) between ASEAN and non-ASEAN countries participating in RCEP. In the Chapter of Trade in Goods, 15 Member States made bilateral tariff elimination commitments between each two of them. More than 90% of trade in goods will get zero tariff treatment after the agreement coming into force. In the Chapter of Trade in Services, 7 Member States adopt negative list making their commitments while other 8 Member States choose positive list and promise to transfer to negative list approach within 6 years when the agreement coming into force. In the Chapter of Investment, negative list approach is adopted by all Member State concerning manufacture, agriculture, forestry, fishery and mining, which drastically improves their policy transparency. Furthermore, Member States will also follow high-standard free trade rules in the areas of intellectual property, e-commerce, competition, government procurement and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), etc.

　　In accordance with the provisions of the RCEP, after the Agreement is signed, the RCEP Member States will each perform their own domestic legal approval procedures. The entry into force of the Agreement requires ratification by at least nine of the 15 members, including at least six ASEAN members and at least three among China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

　　The newly signed agreement has attracted the world attention, featuring the following significance. Firstly, RCEP is now the world’s largest free trade agreement. As an agreement covering a market of 2.2 billion people, or almost 30% of the world’s population, with a combined GDP of US$ 26.2 trillion or about 30% of global GDP, and accounts for nearly 28% of global trade (based on 2019 figures), RCEP represents an important step forward to formulate an ideal framework of global trade and investment rules. Secondly, RCEP is the integrator of regional trade and economic rules. RCEP combines several “10+1” relationships between ASEAN countries with China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand respectively, as well as relationships among the above-mentioned five countries, and especially creates new free trade relationships for China-Japan and Korea-Japan. Through its special rules of origin, RCEP deepens regional value chain and industry chain. New technologies are applied for the purpose of promoting customs facilitation, which promotes the development of newly-emerged cross border logistics. Meanwhile, Member States agree on using negative list approach to achieve investment liberalization and to increase the transparency of investment policies. All these measures will strongly support the optimization and integration of regional economic and trade rules. Thirdly, RCEP realizes the unification of high-quality and inclusiveness. Aside from the specific provisions which cover trade in goods and services, and investment, RCEP also includes chapters on intellectual property, electronic commerce, competition, SMEs, economic and technical cooperation and government procurement. RCEP Agreement takes full care of the differences among Member States and their diverse development stage, making sure that the outcomes should be enjoyed thereby by all members. RCEP would also open a vast range of opportunities for businesses located in the region especially in terms of market access given the level of liberalization for trade in goods and services and investment.

　　Against the background of the current international political and economic situation, the signing of RCEP Agreement demonstrates the great determination of its Member States to maintain free and fair trade and undoubtedly injects new impetus into regional and global economic recovery and development. Firstly, RCEP will push the regional trade and investment liberalization to a new height. RCEP will achieve a high level of openness within the region. With regard to trade in goods, Member States have further opened their markets to each other, and the Member States that have previously established bilateral FTAs will generally accelerate tariff elimination for already covered goods and including new categories of goods pursuant thereto. Those have no bilateral FTAs will achieve significant results in opening up their markets to each other. With the completion of RCEP, enterprises in the region will have a more free, open, stable and transparent market, and will certainly get more opportunities for cooperation and more space for development. Secondly, RCEP will provide a new impetus for regional economic development. RCEP, as a comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial FTA, changes the fragmentation of FTAs in the region and becomes a unified system of trade and investment rules for the first time. It will significantly reduce the operating costs of enterprises, promote them to reconstruct supply chains and value chains in the region, optimize the flow of goods, technology, services and capitals within the region, and help to build a more stable and prosperous East Asian economic circle. The East Asian region has put an end to the “primary stage” model, which has been dominated by bilateral and small-scale regional cooperation, and has made great strides towards a new era of greater regional economic integration, providing a sustained new impetus for regional economic development. Thirdly, RCEP will create a new situation of open world economy. At present, the international pattern has been profoundly adjusted, protectionism and unilateralism have risen, uncertainty and instability have increased significantly, the world economy is depressed and international trade and investment have shrunk significantly. The signing of RCEP has showed strong support to the open, inclusive and rule-based multilateral trading system, in line with the trend of globalization and regional economic integration, as well as the trend of peace, development, and win-win cooperation. It will also boost the global economic confidence and is conducive to regional and global economic recovery and development.

　　China will intensify efforts to deepen reform and fulfill the commitments as soon as possible. China will work closely with all countries including Pakistan to deepen the existing trade and economic cooperation and contribute to build a community of shared future for mankind.