THE signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) shows that multilateral trading system is vital in defending the global trading order in fighting against rising protectionism in advanced economies.
The RCEP is the world’s largest free trade deal in the Asia-Pacific between 10 member states of Asean, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and five of their free trade agreement (FTA) partners (Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea).