Apparel made in Nantong. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province issued 18,991 RCEP certificates of origin to cargo worth $591 million in the first eight months of this year, local media reported.

The two figures accounted for 56 percent and 43 percent of the respective totals in the province.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, signed by 15 Asia-Pacific countries, covers a wide range of areas, including tariff reduction, trade facilitation and opening up of services and investment.

Among these RCEP certificates of origin, 18,740 were issued to $583 million worth of cargo exported to Japan.

Tang Yongrong, deputy general manager of Nantong Dongrun Fashion Co Ltd, noted that the RCEP has helped Japanese clients save up to $300,000 from January to June and stabilize the price of Dongrun's exports.

"Despite sluggish foreign trade, the RCEP has helped raise our sales revenue in the first half of this year by 3 percent to over $32 million," said Pan Jianxin, deputy general manager of Weifu Foreign Trade Co Ltd.

Since the start of this year, the Nantong trade promotion organization has carried out 10 training sessions for the RCEP which were attended by 800 local businesses. The organization has also published learning materials about the RCEP to help local enterprises learn more about the favorable policies involved.