The deal was sealed on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit hosted by Vietnam.

The agreement brings together 15 Asia Pacific countries with a population of more than two billion people, accounting for some 30% of the global economy minister.

The partnership was nearly a decade in the making.

It includes China, the world's second largest economy, but it leaves out top economic power.

The United States President Donald Trump quit previous efforts to form a trans Pacific trade bloc.

Members of this new pact hope the further loosening of trade barriers will lead to greater prosperity for the Asia Pacific region.

This agreement signifies that our region, which has been the most economically dynamic region of the world in recent decades, is still committed toe openness to trade and that we will use that as a platform and a springboard for recovery in the post covert era.

The agreement is set to reduce tariffs, harmonized trade rules and streamline supply chains.

Analysts say it may cement China's position as Asia's leading economic power, allowing Beijing to call the shots on important trading terms from Japan to New Zealand.

China also stands to benefit by being able to reduce its dependence on other markets, such as the United States, to talk a little more about the significance of this pact.

I'm joined now.

By Clifford Coonan From D W Business Clifford Thanks for coming in.

Uh, this is branded as a coup for China.

How significant is it really for Beijing?

I think it's massively significant for Beijing.

Thistle is 30% of global GDP.

Andi in the driving seat very much as China China uses trade is away.

Thio thio way various regional tensions politically on use.

It's economic muscle to get over the political strains with a lot of its neighbors over the South China Sea.

Andi, other areas, you know, the It doesn't include things that Beijing is less happy about talking about such environmental goals or anything to do with political areas such as human rights.

So it's a big win for Beijing.

How much does the United States stand to lose by being excluded from this deal?

Well, I think it's it's very significant.

The US isn't in it.

It's a sign of what's been going on the last four years with the US looking inwards.

Andi, it's We've seen other trade trade deals fall because of this and would move away from multilateralism towards, uh, just looking inwards for the U.

S.

It's gonna be interesting to see now how this how this will play out with Joe Biden because he's with the president elect because he's, um, presumably mawr trade friendly going on previous Democratic leaders.

He's more trade friendly than Donald Trump.

But how that will play out.

Of course, we'll have to wait and see, but it is significant.

The US isn't it, because it's a Pacific power as well, and this is supposedly a Pacific deal, so it's gonna be a big factor.

Let's look at this new powerful block from the European perspective.

How is it likely to affect the you?

Well, I think it will lead to cheaper goods in the in Europe.

That's 11 positive.

It's again putting political pressure on the EU to see how it's dealing with China.

You know, the weighing up the political versus three economic Andi.

So it's going to have to see how it can get him.

It can work with this this new block because within the bloc you've got the Asian, the Asian countries, thes thes Southeast Asian countries with whom the U has very strong relations.

And then you have strategic competitors like China.

So there's a There's gonna be, ah, lot of re balancing and a lot of examination about how to move forward for the U one very important economy in Asia that's missing from this trade deal is India.

Why is that?

Well, I think India is a big, big, big omission or, you know, the fact it's not there is very serious.

Um, it's largely because of tensions with China that it's not there on.

I think it means going forward.

We're going to have to see how, uh um if the next trade deal will have to have Indian it or else it doesn't really work.

So let's wait and see Clifford Coonan of DW business.

Thank you very much.