Singapore and EU to start free trade talks

3/03/2010

SINGAPORE: Singapore and the European Union will start talks next week on a free-trade agreement seen as an "important stepping stone" in the EU's engagement with Southeast Asia, officials said Wednesday.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch and Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang made the announcement during a meeting in the city-state, Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement.

The first round of negotiations will be held from March 8-12 in Singapore, the ministry said.

"The proposed free-trade agreement will strengthen economic ties between Singapore and the EU, provide new opportunities for traders and consumers alike and contribute to generating growth in our economies," De Gutch said.

"For Europe, it will also mark an important stepping stone in the EU's engagement with the ASEAN region."

The start of negotiations with Singapore follows an announcement on Tuesday that the EU will also begin free-trade talks with Vietnam.

The EU had earlier abandoned its strategy of negotiating a free trade pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole, publicly citing different levels of economic development within the 10-member bloc.

Instead, the EU decided it will secure free-trade agreements with individual ASEAN states.

Diplomats have said however that the change in the EU strategy is also due to disagreements over alleged human rights violations in military-ruled Myanmar.

The EU still maintains sanctions on Myanmar, including a travel ban on regime figures, a freeze of their assets and an arms embargo.

In 2007, after the Myanmar junta's violent suppression of popular protests led by Buddhist monks, the sanctions were extended to include a ban on the timber, metals and gemstones exports from the country.

The EU is Singapore's largest trading partner and foreign investor, with bilateral trade exceeding 55 billion euros (US$75 billion) in 2008, the government said.

Singapore is the EU's 15th biggest trading partner and the largest among ASEAN.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with a market of 550 million people.

- AFP/sc