China, Singapore conclude upgraded FTA negotiations

People sit next to a pond outside the Marina Bay Shoppes shopping center in Singapore. (Photo: Agencies)

Hanoi (VNA)  - China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, announcing the substantive conclusion of negotiations on an upgraded bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), Xinhua news agency reported.

The upgraded FTA, which will boost market access for businesses from both countries, adds a new standalone chapter on telecommunications, and incorporates high-level economic and trade rules on national treatment, market access, transparency and the digital economy, among others, Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

The two sides also confirmed that there will be no rollback of opening-up measures in the service trade and investment sectors, and promised to each other that the respective doors of opening up will only be wider.

The ministry also said that it will strongly push China-Singapore economic and trade cooperation to a new level.

China and Singapore signed the FTA in 2008 and upgraded it in 2018. In December 2020, the two sides upgraded the agreement again and launched subsequent negotiations to further liberalise service trade and investment based on a negative-list model.

The above-mentioned announcement was made in the context that China and Singapore on April 1 issued a joint statement on the establishment of a high-quality future-oriented comprehensive partnership on the occasion of an official visit to China of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong./.