Many ag products remain highly protected. It doesn't labor, environmental chapters. If it goes forward, my understanding is it would be the largest trade agreement in the world by population and GDP, but my understanding is also that the RCEP is not as high quality of an agreement as others like the TPP for example, or CPTPP are. Reportedly they are essentially concluding negotiations and it's possible this could be signed in February or March this year. It's been in the works for a number of years, six or seven years or more. It was 16 until India pulled out recently.

Just to give our listeners a little background, it's a proposed trade agreement between 15 Asian countries, including China. Well, let's start by talking about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP. I've done a good deal of work over the last 30 years on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the economic effects of closer regional integration in Southeast Asia. So we've done a good deal of work on that as well as things related to say U.S.-China relations. So this is included the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP, its successor the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership, a real tongue twister, the CPTPP, which is the TPP without the United States, as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP. By mega-regional, we mean plurilateral arrangements that have a significant impact on international trade. Michael Plummer: Well, mostly my recent research has been related to estimating the effects of mega-regional trade arrangements in the region. Jill O'Donnell: You focus a lot on Asia in your research, and I just want to start by asking you to tell us a little bit more about the kinds of questions that you are currently investigating when it comes to Asia and trade and economics.

So thank you for joining us from across the pond today. You're joining us from Italy where you're the director of SAIS Europe and I am someone who was fortunate enough to spend about 10 months of my life there as a graduate student at SAIS. Jill O'Donnell: I have to start by just giving a shout out to Bologna, Italy. Michael Plummer: It's wonderful to participate. Michael Plummer, thank you so much for joining us today on Trade Matters. Michael Plummer, the Eni professor of International Economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the director of SAIS Europe, the school's European campus in Bologna, Italy. Jill O'Donnell: Welcome to Trade Matters, a podcast of the Clayton Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of NebraskaвЂ“Lincoln.

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