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This Week in AsiaGeopolitics

Explainer | Explained: the difference between the RCEP and the CPTPP

  • The RCEP is the latest in an alphabet soup of trade agreements proposed for Asia – and it’s not to be confused with the CPTPP (RIP, TPP)
  • The FTA, if it goes ahead, would create the world’s largest trade bloc, encompassing a quarter of global GDP

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Ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific countries meet in Singapore to discuss the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free-trade pact. Photo: Kyodo
Meaghan Tobin

Amid an alphabet soup of trade-pact acronyms, the RCEP is one of the most significant for Asian nations.

Known in full as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the RCEP is aimed at opening up trade between the region’s biggest and fastest-growing economies.

If passed, the proposed agreement would create the world’s largest trade bloc, encompassing a quarter of global GDP and nearly half of the world’s population. Pulling it off will require an agreement between the 10 members of Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

On the heels of Vietnam’s newly signed free-trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), the RCEP could pave the way for Asean to integrate further with the EU, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

The negotiations face a moment of truth this year, as the Asean nations have set their sights on concluding the agreement this November at the Asean Summit in Bangkok.

But with only seven of a proposed 20 chapters agreed as of now, this may be easier said than done.

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