There is a new kid on the (trading) bloc. This week 15 countries signed a free-trade agreement to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). That makes RCEP the largest trading bloc in the world — bigger than both the EU and the US-Canada-Mexico agreement.
China takes centre stage
This deal is a big... deal. For China it cements their status as the chief economic power of the region, and it gives them another avenue and institution to exert soft power from.
The deal signed represents the climax of more than a decade of negotiations, essentially combining a number of separate agreements between individual countries into one single agreement. In total RCEP is set to eliminate 90% of tariffs and will cover ~30% of the world's population.
India bails out
The one major omission from the deal is India. A major economic power in its own right, India was involved in negotiations up until last year. In the end India decided to skip the agreement, after fears that the deal would see a flood of cheap Chinese imports into the country, while doing little to help India sell its services — where it has more of a relative advantage.
Oh and in case you were wondering, the answer is yes — even multi trillion dollar deals like this one get signed on Zoom in 2020.
