Jakarta (ANTARA) – Japan’s Ambassador to ASEAN Yonetani Koji said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) needs stronger rules to address growing trade and investment challenges and widening economic imbalances in the region.RCEP is a free-trade agreement linking ASEAN members with five partners: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.“Japan and all other participating countries should engage in an earnest discussion to ensure that RCEP rules genuinely resolve regional challenges,” Yonetani said in an interview with ANTARA for the International Corner program in Jakarta on Thursday. Yonetani said RCEP is increasingly important as confidence in the global trade framework erodes, stressing that existing rules must be implemented transparently and consistently by all participants.ASEAN and its trading partners need to ensure genuine and transparent implementation of the existing regional economic partnership, he said.“Japan is ready to support implementation in each nation of rules covering areas such as e-commerce, digitalization of the economy and intellectual property protection,” Yonetani said.RCEP members face trade and investment challenges, including growing imbalances, making it important to identify their root causes and strengthen the partnership’s rules, he said.“We need to look at the root cause of these growing imbalances and try to enhance the rules integrated in this regional economic partnership,” he said.Yonetani also highlighted plans to begin discussions on upgrading RCEP in 2027, saying Japan and all participating countries should engage seriously in the process.YThe discussions are important to ensure RCEP evolves into a set of rules capable of genuinely addressing the various economic challenges faced by countries across the region, Yonetani said.