BEIJING — China will work with other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to ensure that signing of the agreement takes place at the end of the year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said March 19.

All parties are currently pushing forward the review of legal texts and other related works in an orderly manner to prepare for the final texts, said MOC spokesperson Gao Feng during an online news conference.

In addition, China will also step up negotiations on the China-Japan-Republic of Korea (ROK) free trade area and China-Gulf Cooperation Council free trade zone, actively advance free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with Israel, Norway and Sri Lanka and negotiations on upgrading the trade deal with ROK and Peru, as well as accelerate the building of a global high-standard free trade zone network to expand its free trade partnership, Gao said.

The RCEP, initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2012, is a proposed FTA between the 10 member states of the association and the six FTA partners of ASEAN — China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India.