ok, jeffrey frank. many thanks. a pleasure. happy new year. the new year brings with it the world's largest free trade agreement, which has come into force in the asia pacific region. the deal is called the regional comprehensive economic partnership, or r c. e p. at the signed in 2020, it set to ease trade barriers between 15 nations. they include china, japan, south korea, australia, and new zealand, and 10 members of assy and the association of southeast asian nations. the pac aims to slash 90 percent of tariffs between those countries that trade in the region was $2.00 trillion dollars in 2019 the u. n says the r c e p could boost that figure by 42000000000 dollars that makes it bigger than any other trading block, including the united states, mexico, canada deal, and the european union. let's talk to robert scott, his director of trade and manufacturing policy research of the economic policy institute. he joins us from rockville, maryland at robbins. got welcome to the news our. so if you're running the economy of the united states out of

jeffrey epstein. and those were headlines, more news fiance's era after counting the cost next. ah, mm mm mm mm mm. mm. pool. frank assessments this gracious, he's continued to weaken luca shenker, even though perhaps he believes in the beginning that he wants banker informed opinions. i think politicians will now be under incredible pressure from their young people. that is one of the most helpful things to come out of this critical debate. do you think i should be facilitated? not sure. okay, it's a great. it's a really simple question. let's give samuel a child swans that inside story on al jazeera. ah, a hello. i'm darren jordan, this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics. this week 2021 a year of economic recovery, but also a year supply chain bottlenecks, soaring inflation, and army kron. so would it be a bumpy road in the next 12 months, or will it be a year of progress? also this week a downturn and the property sector and energy supply crunch and subdued consumption . john is economy ground to a halt towards the end of 2021 critic say it could hit a gr