Editor's note: This opinion piece was originally published in The Jakarta Post on  20 February 2017. ERIA's Senior Policy Fellow Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria provided commentary.

When United States President Donald Trump called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) a “disaster” and vowed to pull out of the agreement as soon as he took office, international media almost instantaneously pronounced the TPP dead. And in the next breath, they shifted their focus to the less controversial Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), calling it... (read the full article by using the link above)