The Global trade patterns have already undergone a profound change in the recent two years with the rising tides of protectionism and anti-globalization, and The WTO's Doha Round of talks (also known semi-officially as the Doha Development Agenda) has faced great trouble. It is difficult to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the Doha Round of talks.

The possible conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks in the near future, will signal Asia's and Oceania's commitment to free trade.

RCEP, a regional mega-free trade agreement (FTA), will not only benefit its members greatly, but also be a great positive driving force to both the regional and global trade and economic growth, and it will boost ailing confidence in globalization and multilateral trade mechanism.

RCEP's 16 member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand) accounted half of the world's total population, and one thirds of the world's GDP and trade volume.

The RCEP will boost not only the Asia-Pacific region's trade and economy, but also the world economic growth. It will be one of the rising tides of protectionism and anti-globalization in the world. One of the world's largest economic blocs, it will possibly rekindle the flame of establishing the bigger Asia-Pacific FTA.

The RCEP will play an important role in the world trade system. And also, it should coordinate its relations with the other several important economic or trade mechanisms or initiatives around this region. 

The Comprehensive Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) agreement will go into effect at the end of 2018. It is another important FTA in the Pacific region.

Since most of the members of the RCEP and the CPTPP are overlapped, it will be relatively easier for the two FTAs to coordinate to boost this region's development.

The conclusion of RCEP negotiations will be a big moment for the region. Also, China is a member of the RCEP, and China strongly supports multilateral trade mechanism and international economic cooperation, and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is promoting China's economic cooperation with more Asia and countries in other regions.

So, in the future, the RCEP and the BRI will cooperate well in different sectors to boost regional economic growth. China will open its market further to RCEP member countries and other countries, and China will conduct more production capacity cooperation with the RCEP member countries as well as other countries, which will help guarantee the mutual benefits among all participating members, and to decrease the negative effects of the rising tides of protectionism and anti-globalization.

However, whether the RCEP will cooperate with the Indo-Pacific strategy well, we should wait and see. Because the economic cooperation mechanism or model of the Indo-Pacific strategy (including the US, India, Japan and Australia) is not clear, and the US is not the in the RCEP.