On 15 November 2020, the Member States of the ASEAN and 5 regional partners being Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, met virtually to witness the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement after 8 years of ASEAN-led grueling negotiations.
The world’s largest free trade arrangement, “the RCEP is an unprecedented mega regional trading arrangement covering a market of 2.2 billion people, or almost 30% of the world’s population, with a combined GDP of US$ 26.2 trillion or about 30% of global GDP, and accounts for nearly 28% of global trade”. The RCEP also represents the first ever free trade agreement between China, Japan and South Korea and is highly symbolic in a time of trade tensions and tariffs.
