Manan Vatsyayana | AFP | Getty ImagesAfter more than six years of negotiations, more than a dozen countries in Asia Pacific are now aiming to sign what would be the world's largest trade agreement in 2020. All 16 countries started negotiating RCEP in 2013, when talks for another major trade pact — the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP — were underway. Given China's absence in the then U.S.-led TPP, which was slated to be the world's largest trade deal, many observers considered RCEP a way for Beijing to counter American influence in the region. The final text with details of the trade agreement will go through legal reviews before being signed and released. Deborah Elms, executive director at consultancy Asian Trade Centre, told Reuters that would help Asian producers to sell more of their products to the rest of the region.

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