ABSTRACT
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation between 16 countries – the ASEAN-10 and the six FTA partners of the ASEAN.1 Trade in goods is the primary agenda of the RCEP negotiations, as stipulated in the RCEP Guiding Principles and Objectives, adopted by RCEP Ministers in August 2012.2 Tariff elimination will undoubtedly be one of the key components of the trade in goods chapter of the RCEP and will be crucial in achieving the goal of free movement of goods across East Asia. While ASEAN member states and their FTA partners have discussed a possible template for the trade in goods chapter, few studies to date have attempted to present an overall structure of preferential tariffs that ASEAN member states have committed to vis-à-vis their partners.
