15 Countries Have Signed The World’s Biggest Free Trade Deal [Infographic]

After eight years of negotiations, 15 countries signed the world's biggest free trade deal over a video link on the final day of the 37th Asean Summit. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) includes Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea as well as the 10 countries making up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) including the Philippines and Indonesia. Once it is ratified, the historic trade deal is set to reduce tariffs and strengthen supply chains. It will also focus on e-commerce and enhance online consumer and personal protection information and transparency, as well as introduce simplified customs procedures and paperless trading.

So just how big is the new trading bloc? The combined GDP of the 15 signatories was $26.2 trillion last year, or 30% of global GDP while they accounted for approximately 28% of the world's economic output. Their collective population is some 2.2 billion. It looked like RCEP would also encompass a further 1.4 billion people but India pulled out of negotiations last year amid fears it would be flooded by cheap Chinese imports and find its industrial and agricultural sectors threatened. A clause does exist which would allow India to rejoin the trading bloc in the future if it so desires.

President Trump pulled the United States USM out of the rival Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) shortly after taking office and the RCEP agreement has widely been viewed as extending China's influence across the region. China is already a member of several bilateral trade agreements but this is the first time it has become part of a regional multilateral trading bloc. Research from the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that the RCEP will add 0.2% to the economy of its member states by 2030 and increase global national income by $186 billion annually.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)