RCEP: Fifteen Nations To Today Sign China-Led World's Largest Trade Pact Covering 30 Per Cent Of Global GDP

China and fourteen other nations including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are set to sign the sprawling Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) today (15 November), reports Livemint.

RCEP once signed will represent the world's largest trade pact in gross domestic product (GDP) terms. It would create a block of nations which would include 10 ASEAN nations along with the nations already aforementioned.

RCEP is viewed as a China-led initiative and its signing today is being seen as a huge coup for China in the extension of its influence. The deal has taken eight years of intense parleys to reach culmination.

India too was a part of the block of nations negotiating the mega trade deal. However, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi led administration at New Delhi decided to pull out of the trade pact over unfavourable terms. India was concerned with about Chinese goods entering the nation.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that even without India, the pact covers a population of whopping 2.1 billion people, with the member nations accounting for 30 per cent of the global GDP.