WALTHAM, Massachusetts: On Nov 15, 15 countries — members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and five regional partners — signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership , arguably the largest free trade agreement in history.
Its intellectual property rules add little to what many members have in place, and the agreement says nothing at all about labour, the environment, or state-owned enterprises — all key chapters in the CPTPP. However, ASEAN-centred trade agreements tend to improve over time.Southeast Asia will benefit significantly from RCEP - US$19 billion annually by 2030 - but less so than Northeast Asia because it already has free trade agreements with RCEP partners.
The stalemate was resolved in 2012 by an ASEAN-brokered deal that included India, Australia, and New Zealand as members, and put ASEAN in charge of negotiating the agreement. Without such “ASEAN centrality,” RCEP might never have been launched. Finally, RCEP and the CPTPP are powerful counterexamples to the global decline in rules-based trade. If RCEP spurs mutually beneficial growth, its members, including China, will gain influence across the world.US policies in Asia need to adjust to the changing realities of East Asia, recognising the increased role of China, maturing ASEAN integration, and America’s diminished relative economic influence.
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