KUALA LUMPUR -- The just concluded 47th ASEAN Economic Ministers' (AEM) Meeting marks an important milestone for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks as participating economic ministers hammered out differences and reached consensus on modalities in goods.
This latest development is thus paving the way for the next round of negotiation to be held in Busan, Korea, in October.
Optimism is also high that the agreement could be sealed by end of 2015 or more likely 2016 due to some minor technical issues that needed to be resolved.
After hitting numerous roadblocks in the past nine rounds of discussions, parties involved in the talks had been unable to unlock their positions.
However, at the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, they had been able to cleared the obstacles despite having differing national positions.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who has been instrumental in bridging the gaps between the negotiating countries, described the outcome of the third RCEP ministerial meeting as a historical breakthrough without which negotiations wouldn't have moved forward.
The RCEP, which was formally initiated in 2012 during the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, is Asia's very own mega-regional trade deal, involving the 10 ASEAN members and their dialogue partners - China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and India.
During the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, negotiating members had also agreed on the modalities in their aspiration to the elimination of tariff of up to 80 per cent in 10 years from 65 per cent agreed when the RCEP comes into force.
Details of the modalities expected to be worked out in the next few weeks.