Pity trade compliance staff. For years, these roles received little attention. Staff ensured that laws and regulations related to the movement of goods across borders were followed. The right paperwork was sent to the correct recipient and customs duties or tariffs were paid accordingly. In an efficient office, with fairly limited changes in border procedures and relevant legal regimes, it was the sort of important operation that largely escaped notice. It was really only if the staff made a serious mistake that trade compliance moved up on the corporate agenda. Failure to follow rules, such as declaring the wrong code or valuations for products, could result in significant fines and penalties. But, generally, most trade moved without incident. As a result, companies probably undervalued the operations and provided only limited resources for staff. Increasingly, however, trade compliance has become a focus of attention within firms. At least four changes have added to the workload: growing trade tensions, supply chain snarls stemming from Covid-19 restrictions, a massive and growing list of sanctions and other types of controls, and the increasing use of economic levers to tackle broader foreign policy issues.

Unpacking RCEP: Benefits for Processed Foods

Managing multiple agreements for the trade of processed foods can be particularly challenging. Food and agricultural products have always been one of the most sensitive topics in trade agreement negotiations, leaving in place often high protectionist barriers. RCEP negotiators, however, were able to liberalize market access for food products, especially those that include more than one ingredient or are processed in any way. The large geographical scope, 15 countries, and the aforementioned concessions, give RCEP the potential to lower barriers and further facilitate and strengthen the development of regional processed food value chains. To illustrate the potential of RCEP to facilitate food trade in the region, consider a Thailand-based diversified food company making peach jam for export. The company uses peaches sourced from China and produces jam in a factory located in Thailand, where the peaches are chopped and then blended with sugar and pectin. The jam is cooked, pasteurised and packaged in jars for export. RCEP’s potential to lower the costs of trade for this and other processed food firms can be outlined under two key benefits: the elimination of existing tariff barriers between member countries and the lowering of compliance costs for regional processed food trade. In most RCEP members, tariffs for peach jam can be up to 30 and 34 percent. RCEP will eliminate those tariffs for ASEAN-based peach jam producers.