Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Economic · RCEP

Every member signed one original text on 15 November 2020. That original is in English, and there is no other authentic version. Each signature was made in a different city on the same day, from Bandar Seri Begawan to Auckland. The Secretary-General of ASEAN holds the document, and accession opened to any state or separate customs territory eighteen months after it took effect.

Questions about RCEP

Which countries are in RCEP?

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, which were the ASEAN member states when the agreement was signed, together with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. Timor-Leste was admitted to ASEAN on 26 October 2025 and is not a party to RCEP, so the two rosters no longer match.

Why is India not in RCEP?

India took part in the negotiations from their launch in November 2012 and withdrew in November 2019. Ministers adopted a declaration on 11 November 2020, days before the signing, stating that the agreement is open for accession by India from the date of entry into force and that India may attend meetings as an observer until it joins. No accession request has followed.

Can another country join RCEP?

Article 20.9 opens the agreement to any State or separate customs territory eighteen months after entry into force, which fell eighteen months after 1 January 2022. India is exempt from that wait under the ministers' declaration of 11 November 2020. Hong Kong lodged a formal request immediately after the agreement came into force, and the RCEP Joint Committee adopted accession procedures in September 2024.

Is RCEP in force for every member?

The dates run from 1 January 2022 for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, then 1 February 2022 for South Korea, 18 March 2022 for Malaysia, 2 January 2023 for Indonesia and 2 June 2023 for the Philippines. Myanmar is the case the published lists disagree on: Singapore records 4 March 2022, and Australia's list of dates does not name Myanmar.

How does RCEP differ from the CPTPP?

Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam are party to both. RCEP carries no chapter on labour and none on the environment, treats government procurement as a transparency obligation without market access commitments, and provides no investor-state dispute settlement in its investment chapter. Each member's tariff commitments sit in its own schedule in Annex I, and several of those schedules set different rates for different parties.

What holds the RCEP agreement together administratively?

The Secretary-General of ASEAN is the depositary named in the final provisions, and instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval are lodged there. The RCEP Support Unit works from the ASEAN Secretariat building on Jalan Sisingamangaraja in Jakarta. The agreement runs to twenty chapters with annexes, and exists in a single original in the English language.

Sources

RCEP Agreements · RCEP Secretariat. The roster of parties, the twenty chapters and annexes, and the RCEP Support Unit at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.
RCEP text · Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. The authentic text: Article 2.4 and Annex I, the tariff differentials appendices under Article 2.6, and the chapters on procurement and investment.
2020 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement · Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore. Chapter 20, including Article 20.6 on entry into force, the depositary and Article 20.9 on accession.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) · Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. The entry into force dates of 1 January 2022, 1 February 2022, 18 March 2022, 2 January 2023 and 2 June 2023, and the absence of Myanmar from that list.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) · Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore. The quorum met in November 2021, the entry into force recorded for Myanmar on 4 March 2022, the launch of negotiations at the 2012 ASEAN summit in Cambodia, and the schedules of tariff commitments party by party.
RCEP Agreement enters into force · ASEAN Secretariat. The Secretary-General of ASEAN as depositary and the rule that the agreement enters into force sixty days after each later deposit.
Timeline and history of the RCEP negotiations · Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand. The threshold of six ASEAN and three non-ASEAN signatories, and the course of the negotiations from 2012.
Ministers' Declaration on India's Participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership · The World and Japan database, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo. The declaration of 11 November 2020: accession open to India from the date of entry into force, and observer participation until then.
LCQ22: Accession to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership · Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Hong Kong. The accession request lodged after the agreement came into force and the accession procedures adopted by the RCEP Joint Committee in September 2024.
ASEAN Member States · ASEAN Secretariat. The admission of Timor-Leste on 26 October 2025, which is the point at which the ASEAN and RCEP rosters stopped matching.