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business Monday 16 noveMber 2020
ASEAN, China, other partners sign world's biggest trade pact

By ELAINE KURTENBACH world's population. The EU
AP Business Writer and Comprehensive and
China and 14 other coun- Progressive Trans-Pacific
tries agreed Sunday to set Partnership, the revised
up the world's largest trad- version of the deal Trump
ing bloc, encompassing rejected, also are smaller.
nearly a third of all eco- RCEP includes six of the 11
nomic activity, in a deal remaining CPTPP members.
many in Asia are hoping India balked at exposing
will help hasten a recovery its farmers and factories to
from the shocks of the pan- more foreign competition.
demic. Among other concerns,
The Regional Comprehen- Indian dairy farmers are
sive Economic Partnership, worried about competi-
or RCEP, was signed virtu- tion from New Zealand and
ally on Sunday on the side- Australian milk and cheese
lines of the annual summit producers. Automakers
of the 10-nation Associa- fear imports from across the
tion of Southeast Asian Na- region. But overall the big-
tions. gest fear is over a flood of
"I am delighted to say that This image made from a teleconference provided by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) shows the manufactured goods from
after eight years of hard leaders and trade ministers of 15 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries China.
work, as of today, we have pose for a virtual group photo in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. Trade and investment flows
officially brought RCEP ne- Associated Press within Asia have vastly ex-
gotiations to a conclusion It is not expected to go as delivered via a video link. voters in Michigan and panded over the past de-
for signing," said host coun- far as the European Union "The signing of the RCEP western Pennsylvania in cade, a trend that has ac-
try Vietnam's prime minis- in integrating member is not only a landmark the Nov. 3 election, Biden is celerated amid feuding
ter, Nguyen Xuan Phuc. economies but does build achievement of East Asian "not going to squander that between the U.S. and Chi-
"The conclusion of RCEP on existing free trade ar- regional cooperation, but by going back into TPP," na, which have imposed
negotiation, the largest rangements. also a victory of multilat- Michael Jonathan Green billions of dollars' worth of
free trade agreement The deal has powerful sym- eralism and free trade," Li of the Center for Strategic punitive tariffs on each oth-
in the world, will send a bolic ramifications, showing said. and International Studies er's exports.
strong message that affirms that nearly four years after The agreement is expected said in a web seminar. The RCEP agreement is
ASEAN's leading role in sup- Trump launched his "Amer- to help China, Japan and But given concerns over loose enough to stretch to
porting the multilateral ica First" policy of forging South Korea finally reach China's growing influence, fit the disparate needs of
trading system, creating a trade deals with individual a trilateral free trade deal Biden is likely to seek much member countries as di-
new trading structure in the countries, Asia remains after years of struggling to more engagement with verse as Myanmar, Singa-
region, enabling sustain- committed to multi-nation bridge their differences. Southeast Asia to protect pore, Vietnam and Austra-
able trade facilitation, re- efforts toward freer trade Now that Trump's oppo- U.S. interests, he said. lia. Unlike the CPTPP and
vitalizing the supply chains that are seen as a formula nent Joe Biden has been The fast-growing and in- EU, it does not establish uni-
disrupted by COVID-19 and for future prosperity. declared president-elect, creasingly affluent South- fied standards on labor and
assisting the post-pandem- Ahead of Sunday's RCEP the region is watching to east Asian market of 650 the environment or commit
ic recovery," Phuc said. "special summit" meet- see how U.S. policy on million people has been hit countries to open services
The accord will take al- ing, Japanese Prime Min- trade and other issues will hard by the pandemic and and other vulnerable areas
ready low tariffs on trade ister Yoshihide Suga said evolve. is urgently seeking fresh of their economies.
between member coun- he would firmly convey his Analysts are skeptical drivers for growth. But it does set rules for trade
tries still lower, over time, government's support for Biden will push hard to re- RCEP originally would have that will facilitate invest-
and is less comprehensive "broadening a free and fair join the trans-Pacific trade included about 3.6 billion ment and other business
than an 11-nation trans-Pa- economic zone, including pact or to roll back many people and encompassed within the region, Jeffrey
cific trade deal that Presi- a possibility of India's fu- of the U.S. trade sanctions about a third of world trade Wilson, research director
dent Donald Trump pulled ture return to the deal, and imposed on China by the and global GDP. Minus In- at the Perth USAsia Center,
out of shortly after taking hope to gain support from Trump administration given dia, it still covers more than said in a report for the Asia
office. the other countries." widespread frustration with 2 billion people and close Society.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN The accord is also a coup Beijing's trade and human to a third of all trade and "RCEP, therefore, is a much-
members, it includes China, for China, by far the big- rights records, and accusa- business activity. needed platform for the
Japan, South Korea, Aus- gest market in the region tions of spying and technol- The United States-Mexico- Indo-Pacific's post-COVID
tralia and New Zealand, with more than 1.3 billion ogy theft. Canada Agreement, or recovery," he wrote.
but not the United States. people, allowing Beijing to Critics of free trade agree- USMCA, the retooled ver- ASEAN members include
Officials said the accord cast itself as a "champion ments say they tend to sion of the North American Cambodia, Indonesia,
leaves the door open for of globalization and mul- encourage companies to Free Trade Agreement un- Laos, Myanmar, the Phil-
India, which dropped out tilateral cooperation" and move manufacturing jobs der Trump, covers slightly ippines, Thailand, Brunei,
due to fierce domestic op- giving it greater influence overseas. So, having won less economic activity but Singapore, Malaysia and
position to its market-open- over rules governing re- over disaffected rust-belt less than a tenth of the Vietnam.q
ing requirements, to rejoin gional trade, Gareth Leath-
the bloc. er, senior Asian economist
It will take time to fully assess for Capital Economics, said
exact details of the agree- in a report.
ment encompassing tariff China's official Xinhua News
schedules and rules for all Agency quoted Premier Li
15 countries involved — the Keqiang hailing the agree-
tariffs schedule just for Ja- ment as a victory against
pan is 1,334 pages long. protectionism, in remarks