Singapore, Canada agree to explore free-trade pact

Asian Economic News, June 12, 2000

DARWIN, Australia, June 5 Kyodo

Singapore and Canada said Monday they have agreed to explore the possibility of negotiating a free-trade agreement between the two countries.

"We hope these explorations will lead to the launch of negotiations with Canada later in the year," said George Yeo, Singapore's trade and industry minister, after he emerged from a meeting with Canada's International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew on the sidelines of the APEC trade ministers' meeting.

The agreement is expected to cover new ground, possibly the services sector, which will be an important part of the negotiations, the two ministers said.

The agreement will also boost the links between the two countries in "a whole range of things -- trade and investment, science and technology, people-to-people contact, culture, education, everything." Yeo said.

Pettigrew said that as the first step, Canada will consult with its business sector in the next two months to obtain enough feedback by August on the areas to be covered. It will also need to secure the negotiating mandate from the cabinet sometime in September or October.

Singapore, one of the world's freest trading regimes, has been pursuing bilateral free-trade agreements aggressively since late last year in the hope it will help to push forward the sluggish pace of multilateral trade talks amid widespread disenchantment with the failure of members of the World Trade Organization to launch a new round of global trade talks in Seattle last December.

Canada is the fourth country for Singapore to engage in free-trade talks.

It is expected to conclude a free-trade agreement with New Zealand in the next few months, and has agreed with Mexico to begin negotiations in July this year.

Singapore is also conducting a study with Japan on the possibility of launching negotiations for an agreement. The study group is expected to present a report to leaders of the two countries on the fringes of the summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with their East Asian counterparts in Singapore in November. If accepted, the two countries will announce the launch of negotiations during the summit.

Yeo said Singapore has offered to sign bilateral free-trade agreements with all APEC member economies.

Last year, Canada exported C$367 million in goods to Singapore and imported about C$1.2 billion from the city state. Trade between them is dominated by information technology and telecommunications equipment.