VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND LAW FACULTY OF ECONOMIC LAW GRADUATION THESIS RULES OF ORIGIN IN THE RCEP AGREEMENT AND THE COMPARISON WITH OTHER REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS Scientific instructor : LLM. Bui Nguyen Tra My Student : Vo Gian Que Phuong Student ID : K195022058 Ho Chi Minh City, April 2023 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND LAW FACULTY OF ECONOMIC LAW GRADUATION THESIS RULES OF ORIGIN IN THE RCEP AGREEMENT AND THE COMPARISON WITH OTHER REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS Scientific instructor : LLM. Bui Nguyen Tra My Student : Vo Gian Que Phuong Student ID : K195022058 Ho Chi Minh City, April 2023 i DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby guarantee that the work contained in this graduation thesis was conducted by myself under the guidance and supervision of LLM. Bui Nguyen Tra My.
Besides, I declare that I have not violated research ethics while conducting this thesis. My graduation thesis includes statistics and data that I have used for my own analysis, comments, and evaluations. These have all been properly cited in the reference section. The utilization of additional comments, reviews and data by other authors and organizations has also been cited.
Any fraud detected in my thesis will be fully my responsibility. Ho Chi Minh City, dated 10 April 2023 Author (Signed) Vo Gian Que Phuong ii ABBREVIATIONS NO. ABBREVIATION CONTENT 1 ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations 2 C/O Certificate of Origin 3 CPTPP Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans - Pacific Partnership 4 CTC Code Transfer of Commodity 5 EVFTA European - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement 6 FTA Free trade agreement 7 GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 8 ICC International Chamber of Commerce 9 MFN Most favored nation 10 RCEP Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership 11 RVC Regional Value Content 12 SP Specific Process 13 SPRs Product - Specific Rules 14 TPP Trans - Pacific Partnership 15 WTO World Trade Organization iii CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP. Motivation of research topic.
Purpose of the research, object of the research, scope of the research. Methods of the research. Meaning of the research. Structure of the graduation thesis.
RULES OF ORIGIN IN THE REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT. Overview of the rules of origin of goods. The concept and categorization of origin of goods. The concept and categorization of the rules of origin of goods.
The basis content of the rules of origin of goods. The roles of origin of goods and rules of origin. Basic contents of the rules of origin of goods in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Determining the origin of goods.
Procedure for certification of origin. The summary of Chapter 1. THE RULES FOR DETERMINING THE ORIGIN OF GOODS. The comparison with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The comparison with the European-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. Some proposes for Vietnam to effectively apply the rules. The summary of Chapter 2. PROCEDURE FOR CERTIFICATION OF ORIGIN.
The comparison with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The comparison with the European-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. Some proposes for Vietnam to effectively apply the rules. The summary of Chapter 3 .45 LIST OF REFERENCES.
Motivation of research topic The majority of countries are expanding their commercial relationships through bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, which reflects the reality of international commerce today. Due to the participation in and signing of several trade agreements with numerous partners worldwide, Vietnam is also not an exception to this trend. Many of the approved free trade agreements (such as the CPTPP, EVFTA, RCEP, etc.) are referred to as "new-generation free trade agreements" and include the following features as: extensive and comprehensive commitments; deep commitment level; strict enforcement mechanism; and covering “non - traditional” areas such as labor, environment, government procurement, etc. It is undeniable that the issue of determining the origin has been given considerable concern in these trade agreements, resulting in a significant impact on the Vietnamese economy.
This is because of the fact that the country which the origin of the goods is determined is crucial in deciding whether they are covered by the preferential that the member countries of a particular trade agreement have agreed to apply for one another. In addition, determining the origin of goods in order to implement the proper policies is another way that governments defend their local markets while trade exchange is expanded and promoted. However, determining the origin of goods is never a simple process, especially since a country can take part in a number of trade agreements with various different rules of origin. In such a scenario, it is essential to conduct a thorough, detailed and systematic research of the rules of the origin of goods, particularly those regulations surrounding the origin of goods in international free trade agreements to which Vietnam is a member.
This will serve as the basis for improving the current commercial law so that Vietnam can gain the most from its efforts to integrate deeply and broadly with the global economy. Vietnam has recently signed the RCEP, one of the significant free trade agreements. By taking part in RCEP, the Vietnamese economy will have the 2 opportunity to integrate more deeply and broadly with the global economy. Nonetheless, along with many advantages for the economy to gain, Vietnam also faces numerous problems.
Therefore, the implementation of policy and legal reforms is necessary to ensure that the implementation of RCEP is harmonized and commensurate with the actual context. The content related to the rules of origin of goods that the member countries agreed to in the RCEP is of particular interest because it differs from previous rules of origin regulated in other new-generation free trade agreements such as CPTPP or EVFTA. Comparing these rules of origin of goods in these agreements will contribute to the creation of lessons learned for improving current Vietnamese law. Because of the reasons mentioned above, we have chosen the topic “Rules of Origin in the RCEP Agreement and the comparison with other regional trade agreements” as a research topic for this graduation thesis.
The article “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement: Opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese businesses”, of Kim Ngoc and Tran Ngoc Son in Social Science Vietnam Journal, No. In this article, the authors have clarified the overview of RCEP, analyzed the opportunities and challenges that this Agreement brings to Vietnamese businesses and proposed some solutions for Vietnam to maximize economic benefits from this FTA. The doctoral dissertation “Rules of origin with the application of preferential tariffs of Vietnam in the ASEAN Economic Community”, of Nguyen Hoang Tuan in 2017. In this paper, the author provided an overview of the rules of origin of goods and their impact on the application of preferential tariffs in ASEAN.
Then, the author has made some proposals for the implementation of the application of rules of origin to preferential tariffs in Vietnam based on lessons learned from a number of countries (such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, etc). The report “Effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in association with improving the autonomy of the economy: Requirements for improving trade and investment institutions in Vietnam”, of Tran Thi Hong Minh, Nguyen Anh Duong, Do Thi Le Mai, Nguyen Thi Phuong Loan and Pham Thien Hoang in Australia Program for Support Vietnam’s Economic Reform (Aus4Reform). In this report, the authors have reviewed the scale and quality of Vietnamese trade and investment activities with its partners in the RCEP, identified institutional and structural issues for trade and investment activities which affect the ability to take advantage of opportunities from RCEP and then recommended institutional reforms in the medium and long term to improve the efficiency of RCEP implementation in association with increasing the level of autonomy of the Vietnamese economy. The business handbook “Summary of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement”, of Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Phung Thi Lan Phuong, Nguyen Thị Thuy Dung and Nguyen Thanh Tra in 2021.
In this handbook, the authors have summarized the core contents of RCEP, selected among the commitments that have the most direct effect and are expected to have the most impact on the interests of enterprises and analyzed this content to assess the influence on Vietnamese enterprises. The article “ASEAN Rules of Origin: Lessons and Recommendations for Best Practice”, of Erlinda M. Medalla and Jenny Balboa in 2009. In this article, the authors analyzed ASEAN’s experiences with applying rules of origin, assessed the costs associated with this action and the degree of liberalization.
Then they also proposed some recommendations to simplify the application of rules of origin, reform state procedures and improve the efficiency of rules of origin implementation. The article “Restrictiveness of RCEP Rules of Origin: Implications for Global Value Chains in East Asia”, of Archanun Kohpaiboon and Juthathip Jongwanich in 2022. In this article, the authors investigated the restrictiveness of the 4 rules of origin in the RCEP and other key proposed East Asian free trade agreements in order to improve the operational processes of existing global value chains. As a result, the authors proposed two policies to improve the application of RCEP’s rules of origin.
The book “World trends in preferential Origin certification and Verification”, of Atsushi Tanaka in 2011. In this book, the author has clarified the content of proof of origin and origin inspection procedures, as well as the difficulties in applying the origin of goods to customs authorities. The main challenges that customs authorities face are noncompliance with certification requirements, a lack of precise procedures for verifying origin, and a lack of capacity. As a result, the author provided some critical solutions to these problems.
The book “Rules of origin: Can the noodle bowl of trade agreements be untangled?”, of Wayne Crook and Jenny Gordon in 2017. In this book, the authors emphasized the importance of considering rules of origin in free trade agreements, highlighted how these rules are protectionist, pointed out common problems relating to the determination of origin that affect the effectiveness of free trade agreements and suggested a number of ways to improve these issues. The report “Rules of origin and origin procedures applicable to exports from least developed countries”, of Mina Mashayekhi in 2011. This report evaluated the application of rules of origin in less developed countries in exporting to large markets.
It also assessed the issue of origin management through the determination of origin, procedures for granting origin, certification and inspection of the origin of imported goods, legal regulations on origin and proposed some recommendations to simplify the application of rules of origin. The report “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): Implications, Challenges and Future Growth of East Asia and ASEAN”, of Fukunari Kimura, Shandre Mugan Thangavelu and Dionisius Narjoko in 2022. This 5 report has content related to the birth of RCEP, the difference of RCEP compared to other free trade agreements and the impact that RCEP brings to East Asia. The article “Mega-Regional Trade Deals in the Asia-Pacific: Choosing between the TPP and RCEP?” of Jeffrey D.
Wilson in Journal of Contemporary Asia in 2015. This article dealed with trade policy choices posed by the mega-regional trade negotiations, examined the evolution of the Asia - Pacific trading system after the emergence of the TPP and RCEP, offered views on four major issues (trade policy ambitions, the role of ASEAN, US – China trade friction and defensive concerns) which will be important in providing information for the regional government’s decisions. Therefore, it can be seen that studies related to RCEP and rules of origin are common.