{"id":6626,"date":"2020-11-15T21:22:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T21:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=6626"},"modified":"2020-11-15T21:28:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T21:28:40","slug":"15-asian-countries-sign-worlds-biggest-free-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/15-asian-countries-sign-worlds-biggest-free-trade-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Asian countries sign world’s biggest free trade deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

China-led world’s largest free trade deal unites nations covers 30% of global trade and 2.2 billion people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries have signed the world’s biggest free trade deal, covering 2.2 billion people and 30 percent of the world\u2019s economic output.<\/p>\n

The leaders of China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea signed the deal, alongside members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed over a video link after eight years of negotiations as the world’s economy is struggling to survive the threats posed by COVID. The deal was inked by prime ministers and their trade ministers at a virtual conference<\/p>\n

The leaders\u2019 statement said the deal \u201cdemonstrates our strong commitment to supporting economic recovery, inclusive development, job creation and strengthening regional supply chains as well as our support for an open, inclusive, rules-based trade and investment arrangement\u201d.<\/p>\n

‘Under the current global circumstances, the fact the RCEP has been signed after eight years of negotiations brings a ray of light and hope amid the clouds,’ said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang after the virtual signing.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s prime minister, Scott Morrison, said the deal would \u201copen up new doors for Australian farmers, businesses and investors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern believes that \u201cNew Zealand industries will directly benefit from this new agreement, helping us to accelerate our economic recovery and build back better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described the signing of the pact as a \u201cmajor step forward for the world, at a time when multilateralism is losing ground, and global growth is slowing\u201d. The trade deal, he said, would help\u00a0\u201cpromote freer trade and closer\u00a0interdependence especially in the face of COVID-19\u201d when the economies of all countries are under pressures.<\/p>\n

The trade deal is seen as a China-led alternative to a now-defunct Washington trade initiative, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).<\/p>\n

The RCEP ‘solidifies China’s broader regional geopolitical ambitions around the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)’, according to said Alexander Capri, a trade expert at the National University of Singapore Business School.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China-led world’s largest free trade deal unites nations covers 30% of global trade and 2.2 billion people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[221,137,136,45,134,248,86,296],"class_list":["post-6626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-asean","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-singapore","tag-trade"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Regional-Comprehensive-Economic-Partnership-RCEP.jpg?fit=690%2C386&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-1IS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6626"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6635,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6626\/revisions\/6635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}