RCEP

 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the ASEAN and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements - Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam are ASEAN members.

 RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement which includes several Asian and American nations but excludes China and India.

 The arrangement is also open to any other external economic partners, such as nations in Central Asia and remaining nations in South Asia and Oceania.

 In 2017, US President Trump signed a memorandum that stated withdrawal of the US from the TPP, a move which is seen to improve the chances of success for RCEP.

 RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical co-operation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues.

 Negotiations of RCEP will aim to achieve the high level of tariff liberalisation, through building upon the existing liberalisation levels between participating countries.

 The RCEP takes into account the East Asia Free Trade Agreement (EAFTA) and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia (CEPEA) initiatives, with the difference that the RCEP is not working on a pre-determined membership.

 Instead, it is based on open accession which enables participation of any of the ASEAN FTA partners (China, Korea, Japan, India and Australia-New Zealand).