Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s Deputy Minister for Commerce SansernSamalapa has said signing the RCEP agreement would help boost confidence in thebusiness sector and promote multilateral trade, while expressing his confidencethe deal would help expedite the region's economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ministers from participating countries to the Regional Comprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP) on August 30 reaffirmed their commitment to signing the RCEPagreement in this November, and said they would invite India to return to thenegotiating table.

They agreed that the region's market needed to be more open to accommodateflows of essential goods and services.

TheRCEP is a free trade agreement among the 10 member states of ASEAN and its fivepartners, namely Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic ofKorea. India withdrew from the talks in November 2019.

The RCEP has a population of almost 3.6 billion people or 48.1 percent of theworld population. In 2019, the combined GDP of the grouping was worth more than28.5 trillion USD or around 32.7 percent of the world's GDP.

Thailand's trade value with the RCEP member countries is currently worth 280billion USD - 59.5 percent of the country's total trade value.

Thailand exports over 140 billion USD worth of goods to the 15 member countriesor 57 percent of its total exports./.