Shaping trade in goods relevant to renewable energy generation: the RCEP’s potential and limitation

ABSTRACT The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) has shaped the legal regime of the ‘new Asian regionalism’ that emerged due to the region’s rising economic power and increased partnerships. However, the pact has been criticized to bypass rules dealing with environmental protection. This article demonstrates that the RCEP can potentially contribute to trade in certain renewable energy generation products through its tariff liberalization scheme. It also submits that the pervasive use of unilateral trade remedies and local content requirements could impede greater trade potential facilitated by these tariff cut commitments. Looking ahead, a number of proposals are tabled in this article to improve the quality of the RCEP in advancing regional trade partnership in green energy promotion.