
MANILA -- The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed trade pact involving 16 countries including China, Japan and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will not reach an agreement in 2017, a ministerial meeting in Manila concluded on Nov. 12.
Negotiations began in 2013 will now carry on into 2018. The ministerial meeting was held ahead of a leaders' talk scheduled for Nov. 14 in the Philippine capital.