This image made from a teleconference provided by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) shows the leaders and trade ministers of 15 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership countries today. Asia Pacific nations including China, Japan and South Korea signed the world’s largest regional free-trade agreement today. Negotiators pushed the deal across the finish line after India surprised participants late last year by abandoning the agreement. India, though, will be allowed to rejoin the trade pact. The agreement underscores how U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2017 decision to withdraw from a different Asia Pacific trade pact -- the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP – diminished America’s ability to offer a counterbalance to China’s growing regional economic influence.

Source: The Standard November 15, 2020 06:33 UTC