Fifteen countries across the Asia-Pacific signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on November 15, creating the world's largest trading bloc that is expected to help accelerate the member nations' growth following the COVID-19 pandemic. The deal excludes the United States and India, which pulled out of the agreement last year over concerns about cheap Chinese goods entering the country.
The RCEP comprises 10 Southeast Asian countries, as well as South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The agreement was signed on the final day of the 37th ASEAN Summit hosted virtually by Vietnam. Officials took turns signing copies of the agreement and showing them off on camera at the virtual summit, according to global newswires.
"I am delighted to say that after eight years of hard work, as of today, we have officially brought RCEP negotiations to a conclusion for signing," said Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
"Under the current global circumstances, the fact the RCEP has been signed after eight years of negotiations brings a ray of light and hope amid the clouds," said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who termed the agreement ‘a victory of multilateralism and free trade’.
The door is open for India to join in the future, the signatories said.Members of the RCEP make up nearly a third of the world's population and account for 29 per cent of global gross domestic product. The new free trade bloc will be bigger than both the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the European Union.
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