Regional economic integration: a look at the regional comprehensive economic partnership: RCEP

In light of regional economic integration approaches, what is the integration proposed by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)? The agreement was signed on November 15, 2020, after nearly a decade of negotiations. It was known as the largest trade agreement in the world, as it was signed between fifteen countries that together contribute approximately 30% of the world Gross Domestic Product, besides having almost a third of the world's population. In order to characterize the agreement, the work was divided in to two parts. In the first, guiding concepts are presented, based on the economic integration framework. In sequence, the RCEP is analysed. The study qualitatively addresses the information collected through bibliographic and documentary data. The property ofthe study is analytical descriptive and concludes that the integration arrangement is mainly aimed at facilitating intrabloc trades, with the potential to cause trade and investments diversion