RCEP, ideology and hypocrisy

First of two parts

STUCK in the Senate for ratification is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia Pacific nations composed of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) — comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — plus the three partners of the bloc (China, Japan and South Korea), Australia and New Zealand. As of the first week of December, 11 states (Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China and South Korea) have ratified their membership to RCEP. The pact is scheduled to be in operation on Jan. 1, 2022.