The IMF projects a downtick in global economic growth - a mere 2.8 percent for 2023. The Asia-Pacific region, once hailed as the economic dynamo that drove the recovery post-2008, is faring no better. Its growth rate is languishing at around 4 percent for both 2023 and 2022, a significant decrease from 6.5 percent in 2021. The path to global economic recovery, it appears, is far from straightforward. The transformation, as the recent news suggests, might arise from the Philippines’s ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), prompting the mega-trade arrangement to take full effect for all of its 15 members.