Page 1 - COL Asia Newsletter (25 October 2017)

COL ASIA NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2017

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership moves step closer

ound 19 of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Inside this issue:
R (RCEP) were held in Hyderabad, India on 17-19 July 2017. RCEP is a new regional
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) involving the 10-nation ASEAN Economic Community
(Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, ASEAN 2
Laos and Viet Nam, and its six ASEAN+1 FTA partners - Australia, China, India, Japan
Korea and New Zealand - known as ASEAN+6. Malaysia 3
Ministers from the 16 RCEP countries attended the 3rd RCEP Intersessional Ministerial
Meeting in Ha Noi, Viet Nam on 21-22 May 2017, to take stock of the status of 3-year-
long RCEP negotiations, including the challenges faced following the conclusion of Singapore 7
the 18th round of negotiations held in Pasay City, Philippines, on 2-12 May 2017. The
Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to meet the Leaders’ mandate for a swift Hong Kong 7
conclusion of the RCEP negotiations in delivering the vision in the Guiding Principles and
Objectives for the RCEP Negotiations
RCEP is set to become the World’s largest free trade area, with over 46% of the global Vietnam 8
population and representing 24% of global GDP. ▄▌

New Zealand 8
LLM (Applied Law) in ASEAN Cross-Border Practice

SEAN’s strategic importance to Australia and New Zealand, as a bridge to South IPBA 11
A East Asia and as a trading hub between Australasia and four large Asian economies,
made the ASEAN+6 free trade area the logical choice for the focus of a new jurisdictional LawAsia 12
stream in the LLM (Applied Law) program - ASEAN Cross-Border Legal Practice. ▄▌

OCTOBER 2017 Page 1