RCEP: Agreement Signed to Form Massive Free Trade Area (Map)

Graphic modified by Evan Centanni from this map by Wikimedia user Masterdeis (CC BY-SA).

What is the RCEP free trade deal?

Two weeks agao, 15 countries in Asia and Oceania signed a long-planned treaty to form the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade area widely billed as the "world's largest". However, the RCEP doesn't exist quite yet as an actual free trade area, since it's still waiting to be ratified (written into the laws of member countries). Read on for a quick explanation of what the RCEP is, when it will be implemented, and how it compares to the world's other free trade areas.