At the beginning of the year, the Turnbull Government revealed that Australia would head into a new secretive 16-member mega trade pact called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was expected to be concluded by year’s end. The RCEP is backed by China and also includes the ASEAN countries along with Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
While not a lot is known about RCEP, Peter Martin reported that the deal would include some of the same deleterious features that are present in the TPP, at the behest of the business lobby:
