[Lee Jae-min]Sixteen years on the fence: Time for Korea to come down

This project has had quite a journey — it started as an American idea, was dropped by America, and was then picked up and brought to life by Japan and Australia.

It is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which finally entered into force in December 2018.

It now has 12 member states: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

With a combined gross domestic product of around