New Pacific Trade Deal Is Biden’s Road Back to the TPP
RCEP trade deal partners at a summit last year.
Photographer: MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images/AFPIt didn’t take long for folks in Washington to leap on the weekend signing by China and 14 other countries of what is billed as the world’s largest trade deal as an example of how the U.S. is being left behind — or just plain left out — in the Pacific Rim.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has a turgid name. It’s derided by economists as not doing much to either liberalize goods trade or embed ambitious new rules addressing 21st century economic issues like the flow of data. RCEP even lost one of its biggest participants when India dropped out a year ago.