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China and 14 other countries have agreed to form the world’s largest free trade bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity.  Without USA, EU or Russia.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/11/15/rcep-15-asia-pacific-nations-set-worlds-biggest-trade-pact

One third of worlds economy can work on their own by itself. If we add influence they have over Africa, this is by far strongest free trade bloc that will be almost impossible to challenge in the future.  

Trade is good in whatever form it takes, countries that are intertwined in such activity are much less likely to bother with wasteful things like war. Forget the petty Americas/Europe/Asia/Africa competition - we should all be working together for a brighter future. If people put as much effort and creativity into technology as they do into killing people, we might be travelling around space in star ships already and everyone could have their own planet to screw up. The world is running out of resources and the ability for species to survive will get much harder in future as the climate heats up. Rivalry is a waste of time, so as long as this trade deal is fair and built to accommodate population proportions it is a great deal for everyone.

Sounds like great news! Free trade is good for everyone and trade pacts like this lower tariffs and keep the cost of goods cheaper for consumers. The negative impacts could be for producers in specific industries as lowering barriers to imports increase competition in a country, but while this may be a challenge for a few producers it's a win for the population at large.

It is natural for neighboring countries to organize into such alliances, and given the US-initiated trade war with China, it is clear that business opportunities must be sought in other parts of the world - and neighbors are the logical solution. Free trade is, of course, in the interest of the whole world, and given that we have a new US president, it may be realistic to expect some changes in terms of US relations with China. If that happens, I have no doubt that the EU will not go in that direction either, because the US administration has put a lot of pressure on EU members to reduce their cooperation with China (especially with regard to building a 5G network - Huawei).

What this pact lacks is the participation of India which seems to have become the largest US vassal in Asia, they have literally copied all US moves towards China, but in the long run it will only be their loss.

This is a big good news but this is not really that new because many of these countries already have trade pacts as members of the ASEAN cohesion. Unlike what EU is doing right now, unity of these Asian markets is more of a voluntary kind of thing and there is no body imposing laws and regulations. The most important thing is the free flows of goods and services at a higher level never seen before. With China pushing its big influence in this region, this is something to look forward to.

Free market is the way to go and this trade deal is a very important step in that direction. Disappointed that my country (India) refused to join this trade group. The government here wants to help the local manufacturers, who are unable to compete with the foreign players. But in the end, the consumers lose out, as they have to content with low quality and overpriced products.

whether this step will really be able to lift the economies of all Asian countries if all Asian countries unite to restore all economies in the near future will that be possible I am so looking forward to this development will everything be able to make it normal and all prices and necessities will be cheaper I am very waiting for all of this.

The free trade alliance that China has made with 14 countries is indeed a common thing, China will continue to build other economic alliances with many countries in order to continue to develop its power in the economic field.  In fact, we all know that only China is capable of printing state revenue up to double digits.  China also controls trade in the world so this policy will continue to have an impact on China's power itself.  When viewed for the other 14 countries, this policy is a challenge, because they must be able to compete with Chinese goods themselves.

Good news for the economy although I dont like China at all. This will help uniting many places and together, countries in Asia can developed and increase life standard

An economic partnership that will help each member will definitely what is needed to improve the lives of the people, this pandemic had already affected all countries in Asia. China seems to be the first that will unite Asia that will not leave anyone behind.

Asian countries are deprived and uniting is what is needed to support the growing population and every nation's population is growing exponentially, there is a need for industrialization and production of agricultural products.

Now the problem would be how favourable the conditions would be for everyone who are involved in the same. I do believe that if they are cutting of the influence of the big countries then it's going to be really good for the small and developing countries which are most of the times taken advantage of and thus this would help them to get justifiable exchange prices.



But at the same people have started avoiding chinese goods because of their poor quality. Even some countries like India have started advertising campaigns like : Make in India and such.
Despite this China have the lowest priced goods .
But they also exploit the workers at the same time , pay them even lower than the minimum set wage.


They are even using debt to control the military power of these countries somehow. It's sad how they are trying to be the dictators of the whole world.

This is the idea, trade. Trade seem like another big factor apart from military prowess to show a strength, popularity and cooperation between nations which can be good factors of world leaders or becoming a world power. China being at the front of this bloc, is showing to push US and allies out. The trade war is getting stronger indeed. But because the EU nations are not really involved then it may not a a large backup. The US also has a big work to do as they begin to work into a new administration.

I think the agreement is very good, when China and countries in Asia agree to do a trade bloc. although I am not quite sure what China's ultimate aim is. if it controls a third of world trade, then I think developing countries will also come together to contribute and move closer to China and its allies. This shows that China's strength in the economy will be even stronger.

Many people don't like China. But this is for the good of the participating countries. The pact will create a lot of opportunities and better friendship for all of the countries that are part of this trade pact.

With Biden's awaited sit to the office, while the article says that he's unlikely to rejoin but I think there is a tendency that he will consider joining this trade pact soon just as Australia and New Zealand did.

In theory this sound good but in practice all these small countries in the agreement/ pact are going to need to measure the impact on their economy, we all know that labour is cheap in some part of the world and manufacturing is also very well subsidize so it is easy for them to produce and dump their products in some countries because of free trade, what this does is that the manufacturing companies that some countries won't be competitive again and collapse creating unemployment and other secondary effect. I will like to see how this work out in medium term

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The implication here appears to be.

• China and its allies will impose low tariffs on trade with no corona lockdowns (economic advantage)
• While USA, EU and much of the world impose corona lockdowns trading with higher tariffs (economic disadvantage)

Its a recipe which could alter the political economic landscape of the world significantly. Although not quite as black and white as it may appear on the surface.

If anything it shows how nations can adopt tax cuts and lower tariffs to become more economically competitive over time.

That is a very one-sided view. It depends on the content of the trade agreement. A bad example of how trade also harms is the EU's agreement with some African countries. This includes that the EU opens its markets for African products (which by the way are mostly not competitive) and African countries must allow EU imports of highly subsidized milk (milk powder) and chicken meat which are so cheap that it is ruining the domestic African farming industry.

However, there is something missing about environmental protection and labor rights because they are not part of the RCEP agreement. In essence, the signing of this cooperation agreement is just the beginning. After that, the countries involved still have to make efforts to implement it. because It also requires political commitment at the highest level. Do not let this become a tool by a certain country to become a "champion" in international trade. read=China.

This! This is the downside of trade agreements. And always, the powerful country will benefit more. This looks grand and truly beneficial from a distance. It may not necessarily be the case on the ground.

Huge capitalists which are close partners with governments will surely reap the benefits. Whereas poor crop and vegetable farmers and livestock and poultry growers, for example, will be left biting the dust.

Countless of times, a lot of my farmer countrymen are left with no choice but to throw away fresh agricultural produce and refrain from harvesting the rest because cheap imported goods are overflowing the market.

Trade agreements in Asia Pacific countries benefit countries there especially Southeast Asia. Here there are potential economies such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore ... they are developing strongly in fields from food, food, consumer goods, high technology. This is a region with high solidarity when ASEAN has peacefully, stably settled regional issues and has effective economic cooperation for many years. I am confident that their cooperation with the major economies will motivate developing regions of the world to learn to prosper like these nations.

Let me remind you that we have already passed this once-the USSR and sympathizers VS Europe+USA+sympathizers.
As you can see, this story did not last long.
A closer example is the European Union, which 28 years later is already bursting at the seams.
Yes, such an agreement will create a separate economic zone (quite pleasant) for the next 30-50 years, but it simply will not live beyond that. People don't know how to live in peace, and China is famous for its Imperial ambitions. For the time being, he will hide them, but as soon as even a hint of some deeper truth comes to the surface, the same thing will begin as with EU.
But again, I don't think this is bad news, no matter how bad anyone feels about China. Simply because this is a place for new and great opportunities and in the near future there will be space not only for classic business, but also for crypto projects and cryptocurrencies. We can even assume that it is within this zone that the active spread of cryptocurrency will begin.

We can even assume that it is within this zone that the active spread of cryptocurrency as a LEGAL means of payment will begin - and not as a thing with an incomprehensible status and in the gray zone.

Some would see a very nice conspiracy theory in this, because the virus as we know came from China which is now almost virus free as some of the countries in this pact. While on the other hand, Europe is going through very difficult days under the impact of the second wave, and it is to be expected that it will very likely hit the US full harder than it is now.

This whole situation shows that China and some other countries in Asia have one major advantage, and that is that they have much more effective methods to overcome such challenges (pandemics) than is the case with EU or US residents. All this, of course, is connected with the political system and human freedoms in the West, where, despite the dangers and warnings, a part of the population wants to live as before - and thus spreads the virus everywhere. It is a very simple answer to all those who wonder why some countries have beaten the virus, while others do not see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Many Asia Pacific countries had go slow policy for some time about this deal. As Trump is voted out, so they hurriedly signed this deal with China. This deal will enormously benefit Southeast Asian countries and also grow ever-increasing influence of China in these countries. It will certainly be a cause of concern for both United States and European Union. Unfortunately, India has missed out, but the door is still open for India to return later.

Not sure where you studied history but your teachers seems to be very bad. China was fro most time in last 4000 years most powerful country in the world but was never imperialistic. For them there was China and the rest of the world. The rest were foreigners and they should come to China, not China should come to foreign countries. This was and still is Chinese philosophy.

It seems that this agreement with fourteen neighboring countries on free trade is just very successful for China on the eve of the release of its digitized yuan.  Most likely, it is the digitized yuan that will become the main currency for settlements in this Asia-Pacific region.  This will contribute to the growth of China's economic power and enhance the role of the region as a whole.  It will also strengthen China's position in its trade struggle with the United States.

I couldn't agree more, This is the other side that is often ignored by the media, as if the form of a trade cooperation agreement entered into by the government must be good news even though this is not always the case.  How many forms of cooperation carried out by China have increasingly given power to its country while in other countries involved it has become a challenge or even a disaster.  Very cheap Chinese goods flooded the markets of other countries and the domestic market was devastated by it.  So this cooperation will only give more power for China to become the country with the largest economy in the world.

What bothers me in this pact is that China seems like it's trying to create its own 'sphere' wherein they could easily implement something and others would freely trust it because, well, they belong to the same pact. Kinda like what Japan envisioned during WW2, the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere which promised 'co-prosperity' and 'peace' along those within the network. Only this time, China acts as a passive, free-trading entity sans the aggression (?) imposed on other members. I just hope though that this does not develop further into an EU-like structure that is crumbling by the day. It's good on paper, although on practice it's a different story.

This is an important step for the treaty countries and it will increase trade and commerce between the treaty countries and enable faster delivery of goods and services to the people of the country. As duty-free trade increases imports and exports between countries, it will be possible to resolve trade wars in foreign trade. As a result, people living in these countries will be able to import and export their essential goods at a relatively low price and easily. On the other hand, China has achieved diplomatic success as a result of increasing trade relations with 14 other countries.

This is a really interesting development, the United States for the most part has been able to manipulate other countries by the use of their own economy knowing that they could pressure them into submission and force them to do whatever they wanted because they had the power of the economy on their side, but with the creation of this trade pact China and many other countries are going to have a way to respond and to resist those advancements by the United States.

It seems that slowly but surely we are getting out of a world in which there was only one superpower and now there is two, I just hope that this not ends up becoming similar to what happened between the United States and Russia because I'm not so sure the world could withstand a cold war as it did in the past.

I am not sure that this can develop into a political plane, like the European Union, if only because the signatories have a lot of contradictions in political issues. To a certain extent, this is a trade victory for China and a guarantee of continued economic growth, along with continued growth in trade turnover in the region, when the United States of America is trying to isolate its economy from Chinese goods and Chinese capital by staging trade wars.

If it is for the betterment of every country that will join in this open trade agreement then no questions at all.  Like the European Union that brings solidarity to its members this open trade agreement can be the start of a stronger economy for its members.  However, it may seem to be for the good of every member but it could also lead to the fall of a few because countries that have a strong economy may eat the weak ones and soon gain full control over the economy of the others only IMO.

Without the big or key players in the trade that can dominate the system, this biggest trade would be the most exciting part of all the nations who participated to it. There is also no need for other big countries to participate so that this trade pact can get along with and played fairly without getting intimidated by other or get influence with big countries like USA. However, China shouldn't be part of that pact. They can take advantage on other countries as well.

This is good news for economic progress in Asian countries, especially Asean countries, which are lagging behind in their economies.
Asian countries must unite to create free trade to improve product quality and expand employment. And in the long run, it is expected
to compete with Europe and America in the economy.

I'm not talking about China that was once upon a time, 2-3-4 thousand years ago, but modern, familiar to all of us China.
His incredible investment in Africa, his constant problems with Singapore and the remnants of dislike for Britain as such, his unwillingness to put up with the US as a world leader, and so on and so on.
If earlier China was the place where all the roads of Asia converged , now China can be called the place where all the roads to this Asia start. Starting anything in China and having a share of luck and a good business plan - you can immediately jump to the entire Asian market, and then India. And you don't even need some EU or US, Russia or someone else-this market is more than enough.
If this is not really an Imperial scale, within which it is impossible to stop China (let's be honest, it is), then I have questions for you, and not for my history teachers.

It has been a dream of many Asian nations, since the Imperial Japanese' Sphere of Influence and Asia for Asians, this finally come true. Although it is still in an infantile stage hopefully this can alleviate in the growing prices of products. I do not think that it will be a problem for producers because aside the increase in competitors, the market they can sell to is larger.

When you do not believe that you would benefit from a trade deal, you do not have to do it to begin with. If Africa thinks they can't compete with European products and when European products go to Africa and may destroy the market, then don't do it? There must be something in return of these pacts and I believe it is not just about bigger nation working to beat the smaller nation, I believe it is smaller nation having a chance to find a market in the bigger nation as well.

Comparing this to the fact that African nations currencies do not have the same value as Euro has, African companies can sell something for 1 euro whereas in Europe it is 10 euro, because in Europe it costs 2 euro to make it whereas in Africa it costs 10 cents to make it. Hence I still think both parties could find something they can benefit from.

I have always known that Japan would eventually join rest of the world on this as well, Japan became a very expensive nation in the recent years, not so much for people who live and work there but for everyone else and that makes trading very difficult for them.

For the Europeans and Americans to understand, let me explain it this way, assume you are making 1 million dollars a year and that is the average yearly income in your nation, but you are spending about a million dollars a year as well, that is your countries situation, could you afford to sell apples for 1 dollars?

You would have to sell it for 20 dollars, and package each apple individually, and if you are living like that and have no financial problem, you are still having problem selling something to other nations right? Because they get 1 kg of apple for 5 dollars where as you sell it for 1 apple 20 dollar basis. With this trade deal maybe Japan can finally lower their prices as well.

I have a strong feeling that this trade pact between these countries have been triggered by the pandemic. Seeing how this agreement has been pending for 8 years and then suddenly when the pandemic is here all of the countries have agreed to a trade pact. This will be of course about focusing on rebuilding their economy much faster with their exports and people will be taking advantage of it in all industry especially in the agricultural industry which I see is deeply affected in some countries part of the pact.

For much of its history, China was busy with the infighting and consolidating itself as a country. By the time it all fell into place, the wave of imperialism from the wide world had already begun. The non-imperialist history of China isn't due to some philosophical stance but due to the circumstances. It has only been around a decade that China has truly had the capacity to actually have economic and millitary influence outside its own borders. Within that time, it has shown enough aggression and unfounded claims for the world to realize that what exactly China wants. Saying that China is some sort of a peaceful country is stupid.

As far as this trade agreement is concerned, it is essentially uniting much of the ASEAN and the major export-oriented developed countries in the rest of Pacific. What is does is to remove a great deal of worry about one of the two strategic waterways for China, namely the Strait of Malacca. The only other bottleneck remaining after this for the Chinese is the Strait of Homruz through which a significant parts of its oil supplies flow. If anybody thinks that China is doing these things for trade and not for strategic influence will be in for a rude shock as the Chinese gradually give shape to their long term plan of strangleholding these smaller nations. This is the reason that India was had to opt out of RCEP.

The agreement aims to reduce tariffs open up trade in services and promote investment to help emerging economies keep in touch with other countries in the world. In particular allowing each RCEP member country to export products anywhere in the block will help reduce costs and time for companies. But going from a least developed to a developed country soon will not be able to enjoy all these benefits. On the contrary the formation of this new alliance is expected to lead to tough competition with Vietnam in other areas including garment exports.

I'm not really sure about the pandemic, but is the pandemic a momentum for China? I just feel that the country that has benefited the most from this agreement is China

However, if you look at the economic cooperation relations that have been carried out by China with my country and countries in the Asian region, it also has an impact on the socio-political field. For example, the free trade relationship made by China with my country actually makes the government always support China in almost all aspects, we who continue to depend on projects funded by China have even become a matter of controversy in my country that our government is building a political strategy with China where great harm to our country. Not only is it flooded with products from China but even my country's politics cannot be separated from China.

The question is, is there some kind of conspiracy that is actually being built in European countries? Are they deliberately playing with the political turmoil behind the pandemic which is currently entering its second stream?

For me every day, I don't fully believe in Covid 19, because the more I learn, the more irregularities there will be. However. I don't even glance at the fallen victims every day. because even without Covid 19, at any time there will be many people who die. But under the pretext that currently people who have died from strokes, the elderly, are all included in the list of victims of the corona virus.

What is going on? I increasingly question the hospital's credibility data.

I feel sory for the people who still believe that COVID-19 is fake. Sure, it may as well be a political biological warfare to whittle down every country's economy and workforce, but that shouldn't stop yoh from believing it is real. A lot of people had died, you can't just say fake death to the mothers and fathers who lost their sons and daughters to this disease. Please keep an open mind but make sure your brain is not leaking out.

Yup this s true. But China simply cant survive without African resources. China is poor on resources. USA is rich. USA dont need Africa, China needs it badly. And China is already taking Africa.

And this is the biggest mistake of all around. When there was an attempt to civilize Africa and make it habitable by Europeans and Americans, you know what happened.
And now those days are over and it is enough for China to hide behind the mask of charity and the desire to help the " poor population "with their money, but in fact this is no different and will not differ from" Apartheid " - only the white farmers-colonists will be Asian businessmen with suitcases of cash. And when the world comes to its senses, it will be too late to do anything about it.

For someone living in the EU, I would not say that there is a conspiracy behind what is currently happening in the EU - the virus has simply infected a very large number of people who are spreading it around, and to make matters worse, virus has become even more contagious. To combat this, most countries are simply forced to go into full or partial lockdown, which creates huge financial losses, causes a drop in GDP and economically weakens each country individually and the EU as a whole.

On the other hand, we have China, from where everything started - and which, at least for now, shows no signs of a second wave of pandemics. In other words, China and its trading partners have the opportunity to prosper economically, while on the other hand the West is struggling with the virus.


The virus is there, there is no doubt about it - it is just an accelerator that kills someone who already has a serious illness before it would otherwise happen, but that does not mean that it does not kill completely healthy people, and those who can still be considered young (under 40 years of age). I know a lot of those who also suspected but got infected and some of them had a very severe form of the disease and even ended up on a respirator.

When you know that someone you saw on the street ten days ago is fighting for his life, and he is otherwise a healthy young person - you cannot doubt that the virus does not exist or is not dangerous.

China will not be behind any mask. They just want resources and they bought them. Yes they will also use army to protect them if needed. No mask needed.

You're wrong there. The mask is necessary, but not to hide China  from someone. Its need so that there are no reasons for the rest of the world to look at China as something bad.
As long as China formally covers its true intentions with all sorts of humanitarian nonsense and other aspirations to help "poor African Americans", everything will be fine. But if he acts as you suggest - in a blunt, brazen and harsh way, then it will simply not be possible to turn a blind eye to this and all sorts of" activists " will force the leaders of countries to pay attention to it.

This is way too good to make happen. Such alliance of different countries at times like this that each and every economy is struggling to came into recovery process is a right call to have an alliance between different countries to help each other out of the existing problem on hand. The trade pact signed by Asia-Pacific nations is a good way to help out struggling economies find a new hope and a way out through this pact. Although it seems that this is not just a new action done by participating countries for it have been done even before, still this trade pact to exist at times like this is very timely to be done because it is being called out by the situation.

It is obvious that the pandemic has played a major role in many of the decisions that we have seen during this year and I have no doubt that this is the case with this trade pact, most likely what this means is that those countries are going to trade each other with preferential rates and prices and if given the option of trading with someone outside the pact and trading with someone inside the pact there probably going to give preference to the countries that are inside the pact already.

This could mean problems especially for big economies like the United States because the Trump administration has burned a lot of bridges and the world did not stop and during that time it seems that many countries have moved away from the influence of the United States and are moving towards China and this pact seems to reinforce my belief this is the case.

This agreement should be regarded as one of the stages of the trade war between the United States and China. Also, China is creating a regional stablecoin in the region to service their transactions. Well, this will greatly strengthen China. Therefore, they say that over time, the yuan can replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

There is nothing that will stop US from doing the same like having their own trade pact and also having their own stablecoin. There is nothing wrong with that either, I'm sure they can program their stablecoin to work like crosschain. China though had been investing to neighboring countries to earn trust, particularly the African and Asian countries.