As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc on the global economy at the beginning of 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement entered into force and could provide a major boost for regional trade, according to experts.

The agreement, which groups together 10 Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) countries along with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, is the largest free trade pact ever forged in the world and covers nearly a third of the world's population as well as 30 percent of global gross domestic product. By 2030, this number could rise to 50 percent, according to HSBC.

RCEP was first brought to the table at the 2011 ASEAN Summit in Bali, Indonesia while negotiations formally began the next year in Cambodia. As RCEP came into effect on January 1, 2022 after years of arduous talks and deliberations, tariffs on over 65 percent of trade in goods were eliminated. The goal of the agreement, however, is to achieve zero tariffs on more than 90 percent of the goods traded among member states.

Over the years, RCEP is expected to enlarge the global economy by adding $209 billion annually to world incomes, and $500 billion to world trade by 2030, according to the Brookings Institution.

"This organization breaks with history, it breaks down some unwritten assumptions about who would join what organizations," Michael Powers, professor at School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, told CGTN. "In that sense, it breaks down barriers."

In the first 11 months of 2021, trade volume between China and other RCEP members reached 10.9 trillion yuan ($1.72 trillion), which represents 31 percent of China's total foreign trade value, according to China's General Administration of Customs. 

As the regional economy further integrates under RCEP, businesses are set to enjoy wider market access and a better investment environment. This would greatly benefit consumers in Asia, who are looking for better quality products at cheaper prices. Another major beneficiary would be the fruit producers and exporters from South East Asia. 

Wang Na, brand director of Dole China, said the zero-tariff policy and improved customs arrangements under RCEP would improve access to the lucrative Chinese market for South-East Asian countries.

"Bananas and pineapples from the Philippines and coconuts and honey pomelos from Thailand are very popular with Chinese consumers," Wang told the Global Times.

RCEP could also reduce the time it takes to get fresh produce from farms to the shelves of supermarkets, benefiting large companies such as Dole and the suppliers it sources from. Wang said this improvement could help secure supply chains in Asia and potentially create an advantage for the region's suppliers at a time when global logistics is experiencing a major disruption.

China's trade with emerging economies, especially South East Asian countries, has seen many highlights in recent years. In 2021, ASEAN was China's largest trade partner for the second year in a row. Trade in goods between the two sides also retained rapid growth of 5.67 trillion yuan ($0.89 trillion), up 19.7 percent year on year.

As manufacturing connections between China and ASEAN countries continue to strengthen, they are jointly developing into the world's manufacturing base, according to Liu Chusheng, associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Moreover, RCEP will see Asian importers increasingly spurn business with the EU, U.S. and other non-member markets, cementing the Asia Pacific region's primacy in global trade, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In fact, the sheer economic size and trade dynamism of RCEP members will make Asia a "centre of gravity for global trade," the analysis says.

This perspective has been echoed by senior Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani, who recently published "The Asian 21^st Century."

During a book launch event hosted by the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization (CCG), Mahbubani argued that the current world order dominated by Western powers is seeing a decline as problems such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the wealth gap become more pronounced. On the other hand, he said, Asia is becoming increasingly critical in promoting global prosperity and multilateralism. 

"Asia as a whole has to first and foremost work hard to ensure its development will be sustainable, equitable and inclusive," Rong Ying, deputy dean at the China Institute of International Studies, told CGTN. "Asia's major powers such as China, Japan and India will also have to cooperate and take care of their differences." 

Meanwhile, the U.S. has appeared indecisive between protecting the rights of American workers and projecting its economic influence in the Asia Pacific. The current Biden administration, which has failed to resurrect the U.S. role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has been worried about the development of RCEP.

"I don't think Washington is happy about RCEP," David Blair, vice president and senior economist at the CCG, told CGTN. "Because right now the major concern of this administration is containment of China and RCEP strengthens China in my opinion."

Over time, the agreement will bring U.S. regional allies such as Japan and Australia closer to the Chinese economy, and thus weaken Washington's influence in Asia, Blair predicted.