The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) represents a new era of regionalism and offers a distinct paradigm for world trade law. When it is launched, the RCEP will be the world's largest free trade agreement (FTA) and a clear alternative to the extant neoliberal trade regime. Built upon the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade areas, the 16-party RCEP covers half of the global population and 30 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP). It also encompasses the world's most vigorous economies, such as China, India and Indonesia. These countries significantly contribute to the bloc's GDP growth rate of 4.6 percent, which is more than double that of the United States and the European Union (EU).

The RCEP, which is double the economic scale of the now 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), will be a key milestone in trade agreements. Yet the RCEP is not simply the latest stage of evolving Asia-Pacific regionalism. It also exhibits the Global South's contemporary normative vision, which challenges the dominant neoliberal approach and the Indo-Pacific strategy of the Trump administration. Since the RCEP combines regional integration with a new perception of economic ordering, it is the harbinger of what I call a New Regional Economic Order (NREO).

In this essay, “The RCEP in the Third Regionalism” analyzes the geopolitical backdrop of the RCEP by detailing the current wave of regionalism and the Global South's backlash against trade agreements based on the North-mandated neoliberalism. “Trade Policies of Emerging Powers” explains the economic priorities and FTA strategies of China, India and ASEAN to illustrate the converging policies of Asia's emerging powers on the RCEP. “Distinct Features of the RCEP” examines the selected arenas where the RCEP departs from Western-style regionalism and discusses the aspects of the RCEP's institutional design that may serve as the trade-development model for developing nations. “New Dynamics of Asia-Pacific Regionalism” sheds light on the role of the RCEP in expanding and accelerating regionalism in the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Finally, the conclusion offers legal and policy advice for policymakers and trade negotiators.