The European Union and Singapore were set to bolster their economic relationship on Friday, by initialling the bloc’s first trade agreement with a South-East Asian country.
“We are pleased to present today one of the most comprehensive free trade agreements ever negotiated, and to submit it to our respective authorities for approval,” the parties’ chief negotiators, Rupert Schlegelmilch and Keith Tan, said in a joint statement.
On the European side, the deal still needs to be endorsed by EU governments and the European Parliament.
Singapore’s Foreign Minister K Shanmugam addressed that parliament at a session in Strasbourg this month, and stressed Singapore’s position as a “significant investment and trading partner of the EU,” the ministry said.
Singapore is the EU’s largest trading partner in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), with bilateral trade totalling €51.8 billion ($70.1 billion) in 2012.
The EU has said the free trade deal would boost its exports to Singapore by some €1.4 billion over a decade, while Singapore could see its exports to the bloc increase by around €3.5 billion.
“This is also the first step towards closer economic ties between the two major integrated regions in the world, ASEAN and the EU, and their 1.1 billion citizens,” the negotiators said.
The deal, first agreed in December, is the EU’s first in South-East Asia.
Shanmugam said it “could act as a pathfinder for the EU’s deeper engagement” in the region, his ministry said.
The 28-member EU is also pursuing free trade agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The bloc ultimately hopes to merge them into a single agreement with the entire 10-country ASEAN.
“With their expanding middle class, the dynamically growing ASEAN economies are key markets for Europe’s exporters,” said the European Commission, the EU’s executive.