POSSIBLE CONCERNS
There is some concern about competition between TPP and RCEP, since the regional pacts have similar objectives over trade liberalisation and economic integration. These
two agreements may also come into direct conflict due to the rivalry between the US and China
, as each of these powers seeks to shape economic cooperation in the Asian region and cement their economic interests. Besides, any competition between these two agree- ments may lead to disunity within ASEAN, which may undermine the organisation’s cen- trality in the region. While Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam are members of both RCEP and TPP, the rest of ASEAN countries are currently members of only RCEP.
It should also be noted that ASEAN FTAs are currently not uniform in structure. On trade in goods, for example, ASEAN and its six FTA partners not only use different tariff classifications9 for their tariff concessions but also use different schedules for their FTAs with different countries. In addition, tariff concessions from the same country differ de- pending on the FTA involved, and tariff elimination rates are different across ASEAN+1 FTAs10. Trade in services and investment are not concluded for all ASEAN+1 FTAs either. While agreements on services trade are included in the ASEAN—Australia-New Zealand,ASEAN—China and ASEAN—South Korea FTAs, such was signed for the ASEAN-India FTA in December 2012 and is yet to be included for the ASEAN-Japan FTA. All these are likely to make difficult the consolidation for existing ASEAN agreements and the establish- ing of common rules and disciplines for further integration under RCEP.