RCEP: What does it mean for future Asia-Pacific trade and U.S. companies operating in the region?
After eight years of back-and-forth negotiations, Asia’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on Trade (RCEP), the world’s largest regional trade agreement, was signed in an online ceremony on 15 November 2020. While more limited than the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP-12) and its successor, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), it is a major regional free trade agreement that poses challenges for the United States, which opted out of TPP-12 and CPTPP and was not part of RCEP, and could displace some U.S. exports to the region.