Asian nations sign RCEP, a China-backed trade pact, excluding India and US

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) -- which includes 10 Southeast Asian economies along with China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia.
The United States is absent from both RCEP and the successor to the Obama-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), leaving the world's biggest economy out of two trade groups that span the fastest-growing region on earth.