The 2026 Schedule Is Not a Repeat of 2025
RCEP tariff reduction is a staged process, not a single event. Each party submitted a schedule that stretches across roughly twenty years, and the rates change on 1 January every year.
For 2026, that means the fifth annual step. Products classified as “staged reduction” drop one notch at the start of the year. Products classified as “immediate elimination” were already at zero. Products on the sensitive or exclusion lists do not move at all.
The practical consequence is simple: a tariff table from last year is no longer accurate.
What Changed in the Schedule
Agricultural tariff quotas
Several agricultural lines operate under tariff rate quotas. The in-quota rate and the out-of-quota rate are far apart, and the quota volume itself is allocated annually.
For origin certificate purposes, quota goods carry an additional requirement. The certificate must reflect the quota information, and the issuing authority needs to reconcile quota usage. An exporter who files a standard application may find the in-quota rate unavailable at the port of import.
Industrial goods
Industrial products remain the main beneficiaries. Machinery, electrical equipment and chemicals continue their annual step-down, and a number of lines reached zero in 2026.
The trap here is that lines within the same chapter do not necessarily move at the same pace. Chapter-level assumptions are unreliable. The only workable method is to check the ten-digit national tariff line.
Cumulation scope
The RCEP cumulation rule itself has not changed. What changes is the pool of materials that can be cumulated, because as each party’s schedule advances, materials from that party carry more usable value.
A product that failed the regional value content test last year may pass this year, without any change to the bill of materials.
How Exporters Should Use the Schedule
Look at the import side too
Reductions apply to inbound goods as well. Components purchased from RCEP members may carry a lower import duty in 2026 than in 2025.
That directly affects origin calculations. When the cost of imported non-originating material falls, the non-originating value falls with it, and the product clears the origin threshold more easily.
Export benefits and import benefits should be evaluated together.
Build a tariff line register
List every ten-digit line the company actually trades. For each line, record the base rate, the annual rate for each year, the staging category, and the product-specific rule of origin.
Update it once at the start of each year.
Separate “eligible” from “worth doing”
Not every eligible line justifies an origin certificate. Certification carries administrative cost, including staff time and compliance exposure.
Where the rate differential is a fraction of a percentage point, the cost of managing a preferential certificate may exceed the duty saved. Paying the MFN rate can be the cheaper decision.
Four Common Misjudgements
Treating RCEP as a single tariff schedule
RCEP binds fifteen parties, but each party’s schedule governs its own imports. For goods entering Japan, the Japanese schedule applies, not China’s.
Forgetting the bilateral agreements
China maintains separate FTAs with ASEAN, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. These run in parallel with RCEP, and exporters may choose whichever is more favourable.
Some lines are cheaper under a bilateral agreement. Some lines only have a concession under RCEP.
Assuming cumulation applies without limit
Cumulation covers materials originating in the fifteen member states. Materials from the United States, the EU or other non-members remain non-originating.
Ignoring the timing of the rate change
The new rates take effect on 1 January. The rate that applies to a certificate is the rate in force when the importer declares, not when the exporter obtained the certificate.
Goods certified in December and arriving in January are assessed at the new year’s rate. For lines heading downward, a later arrival is actually better.
A Note on Preparation
The schedule is public, but it is not pushed to anyone. A company that does not look it up will not benefit from it.
Half a day of work at the start of each year, updating the tariff line register, is the most direct way to convert the agreement into an actual cost advantage.
*This article is based on the RCEP agreement text and the parties’ schedules. Specific rates are subject to the customs tariff currently in force.*