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Chinese vice commerce minister says the newly-signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership marks a new milestone in regional economic integration in East Asia.
Wang Shouwen says the number of zero-tariff products among the members exceeds 90 percent, while the level of openness in terms of service trade is higher than that of the WTO.
"Members have promised to change the current positive list for service trade to a negative list after six years. We can say it is a high-level free trade agreement because the 15 member countries decided to open their investment areas on the first day by adopting a negative list on foreign investment."
The agreement covers 20 chapters including market access, service trade, investment, and regulations for trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, and e-commerce.
The participating countries include the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Japanese business leaders have welcomed the signing of the RCEP agreement, expecting it to boost trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Business Federation chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi said on Sunday that the signing is extremely significant toward realizing a free and open international economic order.
Local media say that the mega trade deal among 15 Asia-Pacific countries covers about 46 percent of Japan's total trade.
It will be the country's first trade deal with both China, its largest trading partner, and South Korea, its third largest.
Akio Mimura is chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He says supply chains established by Japanese companies in Asia will become more broad, effective and resilient thanks to the trade deal.
More than 11 million cases of the coronavirus have now been reported in the United States, with the most recent million coming in less than a week.
COVID-19 is spreading more rapidly across the U.S. than it has at any time since the pandemic started. Deaths are also on the rise, though not at the record high numbers reached in the spring.
The latest tally by Johns Hopkins shows that COVID-19 has now killed more than 246,000 people in the U.S.
Worldwide, more than 54 million coronavirus cases have been reported with more than 1.3 million deaths. The U.S. has about a fifth of all reported cases.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is self-isolating after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
A spokesman for the prime minister says Johnson is well and does not have any symptoms.
He was admitted to hospital with the novel coronavirus earlier this year.
The spokesman says the Prime Minister will carry on working from Downing Street.
Johnson met with a group of lawmakers that included Lee Anderson in Downing Street on Thursday. Anderson is a Conservative Party member who subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Fixed-asset investment in China is expected to resume its upward momentum next year.
Fitch Ratings says FAI growth in the country is likely to accelerate in the fourth quarter of the year, leading to a mild increase for the whole year.
The agency says strong infrastructure investment may underpin growth at the beginning of next year.、
A report says that the trading volume under the Bond Connect program in China reached about 41 billion U.S. dollars last month.
The program saw over 3700 trade tickets in October, with an average daily turnover of 2.6 billion dollars.
The program had over 2200 approved investors by the end of last month.
