SINGAPORE, Aug 31 — The 6th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial Meeting today concluded a package that will be used by the negotiators to “try and find” a substantial conclusion by year-end, says Malaysia’s lead negotiator Datuk Isham Ishak.

The meeting, which kicked off Thursday, lasted for “one-and-a-half days” as all ministers involved agreed “to put in extra time and effort” in the negotiations.

“This was a good round with very good progress made by the ministers in that there is a package for negotiators in the next coming round in Auckland,” he told reporters at the end of the meeting today,

Expressing his optimism, Isham said “it will be easier now” for the Trade Negotiating Committee which will meet in Auckland this October “to find a substantial conclusion.”

He noted that there would be one more ministerial meeting after the Auckland round.

Asked further on the package, Isham said that the package was on market for goods, services, investment and intellectual property right.

“These are some of the bigger stumbling blocks, now that we have agreed on the package, it will be easier for the negotiators now to have a pathway forward in trying to find conclusion to those difficult areas,” he said.

Explaining further, the Secretary-General of International Trade and Industry said:”The package is a pathway forward where it is interlinked with each other.

“So, when we agreed on the package together, then people with difficulties in different areas have a mutual agreement now to negotiate on all those areas.”

He noted that the package was all agreed by the 16 countries involved.

 “In any negotiation, there’s always a problem, but I think most importantly is for them to intensify their request and offer discussion so that both parties that have issues and difficulties can understand each other and come out with some kind of a middle path for them to have a mutually beneficial agreement.

“I can say they are much closer than before, so there are some improvements that are being made,” he added.

RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and six Asia Pacific states — Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

This FTA came into light after President Donald Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. — Bernama