MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : RED CHINA CONQUERS WORLD TRADE – Top of the Agenda / WATCH RELEVANT ANALYSIS SOURCES
Fifteen Asia-Pacific Countries Sign Massive Trade Deal
Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries, including China, signed one of the world’s largest free trade agreements (NYT) yesterday after eight years of negotiations, leaving the United States outside of another major regional trade pact.

Though limited in scope, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) shows that Asia-Pacific countries are forging ahead on trade (WSJ) in the absence of U.S. leadership. Early in his term, President Donald J. Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a more comprehensive trade agreement that included several of the same countries as RCEP. The other eleven TPP members signed their own pact. RCEP includes nearly all of the major economies in the region, linking the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. India withdrew from the talks last year, fearing that the deal would lead to a flood of Chinese imports (FT). RCEP is expected to eliminate some tariffs among participating countries and gets rid of existing rules based on where products are made.

 

Analysis
“While the United States is currently focused on domestic concerns, including the need to fight the pandemic and rebuild its economy and infrastructure, I’m not sure the rest of the world is going to wait until America gets its house in order,” CFR’s Jennifer Hillman tells the New York Times. “I think there are going to have to be some responsive actions to what China is doing.”

“RCEP is another reminder that our Asian trading partners have developed a confidence about working together without the United States. This is a far cry from the early days of the Trump Administration when the remaining TPP members were doubtful of their ability to go forward without Washington,” writes Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler.