VNA
Fifteen countries have formed the world’s largest trading bloc, covering nearly a third of the global economy.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is made up of 10 Southeast Asian countries, as well as South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand…
Negotiations over the RCEP began in 2012. The deal was signed on Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), hosted by Vietnam…
India was also part of the negotiations, but it pulled out last year over concerns that lower tariffs could hurt local producers…Signatories of the deal said the door remained open for India to join in the future…
Members of the RCEP make up nearly a third of the world’s population and account for 29% of global gross domestic product.
I left out the BBC commentary. Predictably, the Brits’ noses are out of joint over this.
The GOUSA wasn’t invited.
Eideard 
Re: the GOUSA not being invited: “The deal excludes the US, which withdrew from a rival Asia-Pacific trade pact in 2017.
President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) shortly after taking office.”
(Jan 24, 2017): “President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign pledge by signing an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The 12-nation trade deal was a linchpin of former President Barack Obama’s Asia policy.
“Great thing for the American worker what we just did,” said Mr Trump as he dumped the pact with a stroke of a pen.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38721056
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said on Monday it was concerned the United States was being left behind after 15 Asia-Pacific economies on Sunday formed the world’s largest free-trade bloc, cementing China’s dominant role in regional trade.
The Chamber welcomed the trade-liberalizing benefits of the new Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP), saying U.S. exporters, workers and farmers needed greater access to Asian markets. But it said Washington should not join the bloc.
RCEP covers 30% of the global economy and 30% of the global population, joining for the first time Asian powers China, Japan and South Korea. It aims in coming years to progressively lower tariffs across many areas.
The United States is absent from both RCEP and the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), leaving the world’s biggest economy out of two trade groups that span the world’s fastest-growing region.” https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/the-us-is-being-left-behind-after-asia-forms-rcep-trade-bloc.html
“The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is a business-oriented American lobbying group.
Politically, the Chamber usually supports Republican political candidates, though it has occasionally supported conservative Democrats. The Chamber is the largest lobbying group in the U.S., spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chamber_of_Commerce
8AM MST, tomorrow morning, 18th