An alphabet soup of multilateral trade deals are currently in progress, partly as a response to a U.S. desire to focus on bilateral deals. 2018 should be the year several of these are delivered. The RCEP trade deal, led by ASEAN and China, will be successful if kept simple. The Chinese government’s stated aim to boost imports by cutting tariffs will help here. That may cut the importance of semiconductors as a trade line, which currently account for 16% of China’s imports from the RCEP group when counting just the top three three countries. RCEP has been delayed by the resurgence of the ...