On Sunday, 15 nations in the Asia-Pacific region signed the world’s newest multilateral trade deal, the massive Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, during this year’s ASEAN summit. While India has decided not to join the pact, which was eight years in the making, the new economic bloc accounts for about 30% of the world’s gross domestic product and 30% of its population.
What is RCEP and who are its members?
RCEP is an agreement between member states to reduce tariffs on a variety of agricultural and manufactured goods and to establish new rules on e-commerce, investment, service industries, intellectual property rights, and temporary migrant workers, among other issues.
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