RCEP a force for recovery and growth: Comment

Logos of RCEP member economies. — VNA/VNS

HANOI (Vietnam News/Asia News Network): On the very first day of the new year, the world’s largest free trade agreement – Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – officially came into effect. It is the second “mega-regional” trade pact in Asia and the Pacific, following the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) that has become effective in December 2018.

The RCEP covers a market of 2.3 billion people and US$26.2 trillion in global output. This accounts for about 30 per cent of the population worldwide and over a quarter of the world exports, which make the RCEP the largest FTA in the world.