Iman Pambagyo, who has led the RCEP trade negotiating committee since 2013, said he expected the deal to be signed in November. Countries have so far agreed on the text of the agreement and almost completed the legal review of the text, called legal scrubbing.

If signed, the trade deal, introduced at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia in 2012, will create one of the world’s largest economic blocs, as the negotiating countries account for 30 percent of global GDP.

“With respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, the finalization of the RCEP this year gives hope that economies in the region and around the world will recover, the regional supply chain will be strengthened and confidence in the open and rules-based international trade system will be restored,” Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said in a statement on Tuesday after a virtual meeting with his regional counterparts.

Read also: Indonesia responds to India, China's latest spat, calls for restraint amid pandemic

The meeting came at a time when countries, including Indonesia, are struggling to reemerge from various degrees of lockdown as they seek to ease the severity of the pandemic's impacts on their economies. The Indonesian government forecasts an economic growth rate of 1 percent this year, the lowest rate in 19 years, and has even warned of a 0.4 percent contraction under a worst case scenario.

The pandemic has also battered international trade and disrupted global supply chains, with factories around the world being forced to close as countries seek to contain the virus.

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