The largest trade deal in history enters into force, bringing together 15 countries around China

The largest ever trade agreement between 15 states, the RCEP, went into effect on New Year’s Eve. It united China and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Japan and South Korea. How writes BBC, the agreement promises income growth for every third inhabitant of the planet.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a Free Trade Plus Agreement covering a total of 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

These are Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines) and 5 states with which ASEAN has already signed free trade agreements, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

The talks began on November 20, 2012 at the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.

The agreement on the creation of RCEP was signed on November 15, 2020. Its entry into force will create the world’s largest free trade zone with approximately 2.2 billion consumers and a GDP of $ 28 trillion, which is more than 32% of the world’s total GDP.

The agreement will provide trading partners in Asia with access to each other’s markets and lower tariffs on goods, potentially accelerating economic growth and improving living standards, in particular in the poorest countries in the region. It is open for expansion, and India is expected to be the first in it, the BBC notes.

This agreement, the newspaper emphasizes, is “only the first step towards the integration of the very different economies of poor Laos and rich New Zealand, communist China and post-imperialist Japan.”