US And Singapore Review FTA For A Second Time

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

05 April 2006

Officials from the US and Singaporean governments met last week for the second annual review of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The two sides welcomed the increase in trade between the two countries, which totalled nearly $37 billion in 2005, up 12.6 percent since the Agreement came into force in 2004, and also applauded the significant growth in investment flows in both directions.

In addition to reviewing the significant benefits produced by the FTA so far, the officials reportedly discussed ongoing implementation, and explored ways to continue building on the FTA to expand trade and investment between the United States and Singapore.

The two sides discussed the implementation process for Singapore’s commitments in the telecommunications and media sectors, including ways to improve the transparency of rule-making in these areas.

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, the United States and Singapore also agreed to launch discussions to consider acceleration of the elimination of tariffs on some products under the FTA, consistent with the process outlined in Chapter 2 of the Agreement.

In addition, the United States and Singapore exchanged ideas on how they could continue to work together on promoting trade and intra-regional integration in Southeast Asia.

The US–Singapore FTA was signed by President Bush and then Prime Minister Goh on May 6, 2003, and entered into force on January 1, 2004. The Agreement was the first comprehensive US FTA with an Asian nation.

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