Singapore Government Media Release
REMARKS BY PRIME MINISTER GOH CHOK TONG AT THE ANZSCEP (AGREEMENT BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND SINGAPORE ON A CLOSER ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP) SIGNING CEREMONY ON TUESDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2000, AT THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
Your Excellency Prime Minister Helen Clark
Ladies and Gentlemen
At the APEC Leaders Meeting in Auckland a year ago, then Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Mrs Jenny Shipley, and I witnessed the launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between New Zealand and Singapore. Today, I am pleased to seal this Agreement on a Closer Economic Partnership with Prime Minister Helen Clark. My congratulations to both negotiating teams.
This FTA is a milestone in our bilateral relations. Ties between our two countries have always been strong. But our FTA marks the beginning of a new chapter of an even more intense and closer friendship.
Economically, this Agreement will open up new opportunities for businessmen from both countries. It will help Singapore companies exporting to New Zealand. Conversely, while the regime in goods in Singapore has traditionally been open, we have made substantial commitments in the area of services for New Zealand companies.
The benefits of FTAs are not limited to securing better access to markets. FTAs can also provide an additional impetus for economies to restructure to meet the challenges of the New Economy. The increased competition for our local companies resulting from the New Zealand-Singapore FTA will sharpen our economic competitiveness. This is true also for both New Zealand and Singapore.
The New Zealand–Singapore FTA has also helped us achieve our wider strategic goals. We set out a year ago with the objective of using a New Zealand-Singapore FTA to catalyse APEC towards its Bogor Goals. The intention was to spin a web of inter-locking FTAs between APEC members, which would help move the organisation towards achieving free trade in the Asia Pacific.
In the year since, we have seen a succession of FTA initiatives in the region. Currently, seventeen out of twenty-one APEC economies are party to FTAs, or are discussing FTAs. Many of these are not between neighbouring countries, but between countries of different regions. Just yesterday, for example, I signed a Joint Declaration on the Mexico-Singapore FTA with President Zedillo, which I hope will be the first FTA bridge between Latin America and Asia. Japan, traditionally focussed only on the multilateral trading system, has entered into FTA negotiations with Singapore. It has also begun exploratory discussions with Korea and Mexico. Korea is currently negotiating a FTA with Chile. I read recently that Hong Kong might be considering a FTA with New Zealand. The AFTA-CER FTA study was launched soon after we began our bilateral negotiations. On this last initiative, I remain hopeful that we will in time agree to enter into actual negotiations.
We are today many steps closer to achieving an APEC-wide FTA.
FTAs, however, should not be pursued at the expense of the multilateral trading system. We must continue to invest efforts towards the launch of a New Round, to ensure that the gap between FTAs and the WTO does not grow so wide that it becomes irreconcilable. A global environment dominated by FTAs may leave behind those countries which are unattractive FTA partners. Hence, it is important that FTAs lead to a new round of negotiations under the WTO.
To this end, I look forward to working further with Prime Minister Helen Clark and her team at the Brunei APEC Summit. Thank you.
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