Make RCEP stronger against tariffs

With US President Donald Trump imposing nonsensically high rates of tariffs on goods from almost all countries, the entire world is lamenting that this is the end of globalization as we know it. Although the tariff rates are expected to be as low as zero on goods with at least"20 percent US content", the US' punitive tariffs are likely to skyrocket to a level not seen since 1930. In fact, Trump has threatened to impose 50 percent more tariffs on Chinese goods after China responded in kind to the US' slapping of an additional 34 percent of Chinese imports.

The world benefited from the US-led global trade order for 90 years. When imperialism ruled the roost and national sovereignty was not respected, former US president Woodrow Wilson's "14 points" in 1918 set the tone for countries' self-determination irrespective of their size. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act passed in 1934 gave then US president Franklin Roosevelt the authority to cut tariffs on a reciprocal basis, and the Atlantic Charter co-signed by Roosevelt and then British prime minister Winston Churchill in 1941 declared that they support international trade liberalization and the right of all countries to self-governance.

These laws and treaties laid the foundation for the creation of postwar multilateral trade organizations, rules and system that spurred development and helped build a relatively peaceful global environment. Access to the US market, technologies, knowledge and capital has facilitated the miraculous growth of most Asian economies including Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the ASEAN tiger, Singapore. It did the same for China.