- RCEP stands for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- It is a proposed free trade agreement between countries of ASEAN(10 countries) and 6 other countries with which ASEAN has existing FTAs (including India).
- 10 ASEAN nations are :
- Brunei,
- Burma (Myanmar),
- Cambodia,
- Indonesia,
- Laos,
- Malaysia,
- Philippines,
- Singapore,
- Thailand,
- Vietnam
- 6 Other Nations are :
- Australia,
- China,
- India,
- Japan,
- South Korea and
- New Zealand
- RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
- RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which includes the United States but excludes China
- RCEP potentially includes more than 3 billion people or 45% of the world’s population, and a combined GDP of about $21.3 trillion, accounting for about 40 percent of world trade
- The combined GDP of potential of RCEP members surpassed the combined GDP of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) members in 2007.