<story><title>RCEP, the world’s biggest trade agreement</title><url>https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/11/15/the-meaning-of-rcep-the-worlds-biggest-trade-agreement</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>eunos</author><text>As a citizen of a SEA nation, really excited with the trade agreement.&lt;p&gt;However one thing that bug me is that a number of media&amp;#x2F;opinion tend to characterize the deal as some kind of China nefarious plot even though the initiative came from South East Asia.&lt;p&gt;That also includes the discussion of some detail of the trade for example as explained in the article lack of focus on &amp;quot;environmental , labour standards, and rules for state-owned enterprises.&amp;quot;. Again those commonly regarded as a poison pill from Beijing, instead of considering that maybe nations in the South East Asia preferred it that way irrespective of what Beijing thinks.</text></comment>
<story><title>RCEP, the world’s biggest trade agreement</title><url>https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/11/15/the-meaning-of-rcep-the-worlds-biggest-trade-agreement</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>cocoland2</author><text>There were several caveats in RCEP that were huge red flags domestically. For example , Diary &amp;amp; associated products from NZ to India , Chinese goods getting re-routed through Vietnam (Manufacture a shoe in China , just label it in Vietnam and route to India) etc. that were a problem.
It is worrying that Chinese influence is grappling ASEAN economies , most times it is the worry that they won&amp;#x27;t play fair with smaller trade partners. For once , a lot of people were happy in my state the agreement was not signed.</text></comment>