The 20 th round of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) concluded in Incheon, South Korea last week, where delegates sought to build convergence on remaining issues ahead of a pivotal leaders’ meeting in November. Several hundred delegates convened over various days of discussion in what represented the final scheduled RCEP negotiating round of the calendar year. Talks were meant to pave the way for a high-level leaders’ summit due to take place in the Philippines on 17 November, on the sidelines of the 31 st Leaders’ meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). According to a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce, negotiators were putting together a draft “joint assessment” to forward to their leaders for review this month. The potential agreement would unite 16 nations in the Asia-Pacific in a massive trading bloc, including the 10 ASEAN member states, in addition to China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The latter six countries are ASEAN’s FTA partners. Covering a third of the global economy, with a combined GDP of US$23.8 trillion, and half of the world’s population, ministers “underscored the immense potential for the RCEP to serve as an engine for global growth”...