Peter A. Petri is Carl J. Shapiro professor of international finance in the Brandeis International Business School and a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. Michael G. Plummer is the director of SAIS Europe and Eni professor of international economics at Johns Hopkins University and a nonresident senior fellow of the East-West Center.
With surprising applications from the United Kingdom, China and Taiwan, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has moved to the center stage of East Asian geopolitics. But why is South Korea -- long expected to be the first new member of the CPTPP -- still missing from this list?