Guangzhou is expected to seize new development opportunities with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement formally signed in November, experts said.
The RCEP will enable the removal of tariffs among the contracting countries－China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations－in the coming decade.
The total population, economic aggregate and trade volume of the 15 countries account for some 30 percent of the world's total. It indicates that about one-third of the world's economies have formed an integrated market.
Guangzhou has made efforts to expand overseas markets for years. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the city's momentum continued.
In the first three-quarters of this year, Guangzhou exports to ASEAN totaled 112.9 billion yuan ($17.27 billion), increasing 25.9 percent year-on-year. Exports to African countries grew 28.6 percent. To the Middle East and Oceania, it increased 3.8 percent and 13.9 percent respectively.
A dazzling night view of Guangzhou. CHINA DAILY
Chen Haiquan, dean of the Asia-Pacific E-commerce Institute and a doctoral supervisor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, said some underdeveloped ASEAN countries with a large population have a huge demand for China-made products. The future market growth looks promising.
"Guangzhou is geographically close to ASEAN countries, which provides convenience to trade exchanges," Chen said. "As a forerunner of China's opening-up, Guangzhou has become mature in cross-border e-commerce and other fields, and is expected to promote the commerce chain and technology development after COVID-19."
Wang Xianqing, dean of a logistics research institute at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics and chairman of the Guangdong Society of Commercial Economy, said Guangzhou has advantages of owning professional wholesale markets with rich arrays of commodity categories.
"Under the conditions of zero tariffs, low costs and convenient customs clearance, which is expected to be brought about by RCEP, the city can establish more e-commerce parks and industrial zones with Guangzhou characteristics and promote local enterprises to go abroad," Wang said.
According to the city government, Guangzhou ranks first in the scale of cross-border e-commerce in China. Since the city was recognized as a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive experiment area in 2013, the export via the city's cross-border e-commerce platforms increased 25 times between 2014-19.
In the first three-quarters of this year, foreign trade via the city's cross-border e-commerce platforms stood at 30.71 billion yuan, increasing 16.7 percent year-on-year.
Some companies said the RCEP will create new market demand and boost the overall competitiveness of enterprises in foreign trade.
Li Yong, general manager of Goldjet Logistics, said the company has launched business in Vietnam and Myanmar since 2018 but it didn't expand markets because of the tariffs. "If the RCEP reduces import and export tariffs on enterprises, it will help us speed up the pace of opening the market," Li said.
Li Jinling, CEO of Guangdong Top Ideal Cross-border E-Commerce, said that lowering tariffs helps to cut costs and increase foreign trade. In the long term, RCEP will bring large growth space for enterprises involved in service trade.
"The comprehensive cost of the whole chain of foreign trade is important," she said. "With the platform of the RCEP, we can connect its member countries' foreign trade service chains with digital tools and build up a 'highway' of foreign trade services."