WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG227/M/1 
20 May 2008 
 
 (08-2313) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Forty-ninth Session  
 
 
 
CONSIDERATION OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN PANAMA AND 
SINGAPORE, GOODS AND SERVICES  
 
Note on the Meeting of 21-22 April 2008   
 
Chairman:  Mr. D. Brauns (Germany) 
  
1. The meeting was convened in document  WTO/AIR/3164, dated 12 March 2008. 
2. Under Agenda Item C.III of its 49
th Session, the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
(CRTA or the Committee) took up consideration of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between 
Panama and Singapore (hereinafter referred to as 'the Agreement'), goods and services. 
3. The Chairman  said that the Agreement had entered into force on 24 July 2006 and had been 
notified by the Parties to the WTO on 4 April 2007 under Article XXIV:7(a) of the GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article  XXIV of GATT 1994 as an Agreement establishing 
a free-trade area (document WT/REG227/N/1) an d under GATS Article V:7(a) as an Agreement 
providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the meaning of Article V of the GATS (document S/C/N/392).  The text of the Agreement w as available, together with its Annexes, on the 
Parties' official websites.  The factual presentation on the goods and services aspects (document WT/REG227/1, dated 16 Janua ry 2008) had been prepared by th e Secretariat on its own responsibility 
in full consultation with the Parties, in accord ance with paragraph 7(b) of the Transparency 
Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements (docum ent WT/L/671).  In addition, written questions 
and replies on the Agreement had been recently di stributed in document WT/REG227/2, dated 1 April 
2008. 
4. He proposed to organize the consideration of the Agreement by asking first the Parties and 
then other Members to give any general comments.  The Committee would then turn to the specifics 
of the Agreement using the factual presentation, document WT/REG227/1, to guide the debate.  He 
proposed to go through the factual presentation by section and then through the questions and replies 
document. 
5. The representative of Singapore
 extended a warm welcome and congratulated the Chairman 
on his appointment.  She also wished to express her appreciation and gratitude to the outgoing 
Chairman for his hard work and devotion.  Singa pore appreciated the opportunity to present the 
Agreement to WTO Members.  She thanked the WTO Secretariat for having prepared a detailed factual presentation on the Agreement and Members for their interest.  She also thanked colleagues from the delegation of Panama for having worked w ith Singapore on the various preparations leading 
up to the current consideration of the Agreement. 
 WT/REG227/M/1 
Page 2  
 
  6. Before highlighting the areas that were c overed in the Agreement, she made some 
observations, from Singapore’s perspective, on Panama -Singapore bilateral trade, their investment 
relationship, and the complementary strengths betw een the Parties.  It was her opinion that these 
would give other WTO Members a better idea of th e context within which the Agreement had been 
established.  First, Panama was Singapore’s largest tr ading partner in Latin America.  In 2007, total 
bilateral trade between Singapore and Panama had stood at S$5.8 billion, a remarkable 186% increase 
from five years previously.  Second, despite the small size of both Panama and Singapore, 
Singapore’s presence in Panama had been growing steadily in a number of sectors.  At the end of 2005, Singapore's stock of direct investment in Panama had amounted to S$258.2 million.  Singapore's investments in Panama were mainly in the areas of maritime logistics and infrastructure 
development.  Third, Panama and Singapore shared many similarities.  Most notably, both countries 
had a long maritime tradition and an equally long hist ory as trading hubs for their respective regions.  
Like Singapore, due to its key geographic location,  Panama was a major trading and trans-shipment 
hub for the Americas;  just as Singapore was for Asia .  Because of the respective historical reliance on 
commerce by Panama and Singapore, both countries ha d also became melting pots for cultures.  From 
a regional perspective, Panama and Singapore, together  with their neighbours, could do their part in 
bringing the two regions closer together.  The Latin American and Asian regions were witnessing 
strong economic growth and presen ted good business opportunities. 
7. Turning to the Agreement, she highlighted that the Agreement was Singapore’s first bilateral 
FTA with a Latin American country.  The Agreemen t, which was WTO-consiste nt in her delegation's 
opinion, had been the cornerstone of Singapore's bila teral economic relations w ith Panama.  It aimed 
to institutionalize the increasing bilateral economic  relations between both countries, and provided a 
platform for growing trade and investment linka ges.  Companies from both countries had enhanced 
access to each other's markets.  The Agreement wa s a comprehensive one that liberalized bilateral 
engagement in areas beyond trade in goods and servi ces.  It included chapters on investment, customs 
procedures, competition policy, go vernment procurement, financia l services, telecommunications, 
e-commerce and dispute settlement.  She elaborated  on some of these areas:  for trade in goods, 
Singapore had liberalized its remaining MFN-dutiable tariff lines upon entry into force of the Agreement, hence resulting in liberalization of 100 % of its trade and tariff lines.  For Singapore's 
exports into Panama, about an ad ditional 50% had entered Panama dut y-free bringing it up to about 
90% upon entry into force of the Agreement.  By the time of full implementation in 2016, all of Singapore's exports would enter Panama duty-free.  For trade in services, the Agreement followed a 
"negative list" approach.  Also as had been stated in the factual pr esentation, the investment chapter 
applied not only to direct investment but also to  other assets such as portfolio management.  For SPS 
and TBT matters, the Agreement provided for resp ective frameworks for coope ration.  Both Panama 
and Singapore had designated respec tive coordinators for SPS and TBT -related matters.  To supervise 
the implementation of this Agreement and to review  the trade relationship between the Parties, an 
Administrative Commission had been established.   This Commission was co-chaired by both 
Ministers for Trade and Industry and should be c onvened every two years.  The Agreement was an 
important milestone and new platform for Panama -Singapore bilateral trade and their investment 
relationship.  Her delegati on was positive that this Agreement would give a strong boost to the Parties' 
already fast-growing relationship. 
8. The representative of Panama
 thanked the Secretariat for having prepared the factual 
presentation of the Agreement, Members for the inte rest that they had shown through their presence at 
the meeting and the Singapore delega tion for its efforts to coordinate the work that had enabled them 
to submit this trade agreement.  Since Panama's a ccession to the WTO in July 1997, it had embarked 
upon a policy of trade liberalization and openness in order to promote the country's integration into 
the globalized world.  This trade liberalization pr ocess had included strengthening bilateral relations 
with strategic trading partners, such as Singapore.  Given that Panama and Singapore were leaders in 
international maritime and port activity, the estab lishment of a free trade area between the countries 
provided potential for a strategic partnership.  Fo r this reason, in September 2003, during the Fifth  WT/REG227/M/1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  WTO Ministerial Conference held in Cancún, closer  contacts had been initiated between Panama and 
Singapore with a view to establishing a free trade area.   More than four years had passed since that 
first rapprochement, and Panama currently had the pleasure to submit the Agreement for the Committee's consideration.  This Agreement opened the way to new market opportunities in the area 
of goods, services and investment, strengthened tr ade relations through mutual promotion and 
cooperation, liberalized trade in goods and services, established a transparent investment regime and 
clear and predictable rules to facilitate and re gulate trade and investment, and offered business 
potential for the development of ports, maritime tr ansport, the manufacturing industry, the sale of 
goods and services, telecommunications  and government procurement. 
9. With regard to goods, legal and administrative guarantees had been put in place and enhanced 
to facilitate the economic growth of the Parties and to strengthen their positions in the global market.  
For Panama, Singapore offered an attractive market of  four million inhabitants with strong purchasing 
power and a gross domestic product (GDP) of a pproximately US$31,000 per capita.  In the 
Agreement's "Strategic Partnership" chapter, Singa pore had agreed to provide Panama with technical, 
technological and scientific cooperation for the invest ment projects implemented in the country.  This 
would strengthen and develop Panama's services infrastructure by making its services more 
competitive in the face of the foreign direct investme nt generated by the openi ng up of trade.  With 
regard to investment, one of the Agreement's ma in objectives – technology transfer, human resources 
training and use of the country's resources – was ac hieved through the promotion and protection of 
investments. 
10. Following the Agreement's entry into force, thri ving trade relations be tween the two countries 
had been reflected in an increase in their goods e xports.  During this period, Panama had diversified 
its exports to Singapore and had succeeded in inco rporating other products from its national supply of 
exportable goods.  Traditionally, Pa nama had exported rough and sawn timber to Singapore, but today 
it exported fresh or frozen fish, in brine and smoked;  shrimp and prawns;  fish or crustacean products;  
skins and hides;  and iron and steel castings.  Ther e had also been a boom in investment in Panama 
from Singapore.  The guarantees and rules establishe d in the Agreement had helped to stimulate 
capital inflows and generate increased interest in  new Singaporean enterprise projects in Panama.  
Since the Agreement's entry into  force several Singaporean ente rprises had been established in 
Panama in service areas, including in the repair a nd maintenance of aircraft , information technology 
and, more recently, a contract had been appr oved for the planning, building, operation and 
management of a container and bulk cargo terminal .  Panama recognized that, in the interests of 
multilateral trade, it was important to bring trading partners closer together through greater openness 
and clear and transparent rules that were compatib le with the multilateral system, which would benefit 
world trade.  Panama acknowledged the efforts ma de by the WTO Secretariat in carrying out these 
reviews and thanked Members for th eir interest and participation. 
11. The Chairman
 thanked the Parties for their presentati on and opened the floor to Members for 
general comments and questions on the Agreement. 
12. The representative of the United States  commended the Parties for the comprehensive 
Agreement and noted that Panama would elimin ate duties on 100% of imports from Singapore on a 
trade basis, and a little bit less th an 100% in terms of tariff lines. 
13. Given that there were no other comments on sections from the factual presentation, the 
Chairman  opened the floor to Members for any comme nts and questions on the responses provided by 
the Parties in document WT/REG227/2. 
14. The representative of Brazil  commented on two questions that Chinese Taipei had posed in 
questions 2 and 3.  Question 2 referred to a genera l policy on rules of origin in Singapore.  While 
Brazil fully appreciated that the consideration of RTAs was to be conducted agreement by agreement, WT/REG227/M/1 
Page 4  
 
  he also welcomed this type of general appro ach.  From a systemic standpoint and as a general 
comment, Brazil considered that when one Member  notified several agreements with different 
Members at the same time, it would welcome the consideration of these agreements together, possibly in a single CRTA meeting in the near future. 
15. While his delegation appreciated the reply give n to question 3 on the Panama's rationale for 
excluding 238 agricultural products, he questioned the second explanation given which related to 
reducing possible trade triangulation from some countries in Panama's market, in highly sensitive sectors, taking into account possible market access through any agreement.  Brazil fully understood 
the concerns of Panama on this matter, but wonder ed whether the concern could have been addressed 
with rules of origin, considering that those rema ining dutiable lines were agricultural products.  He 
wondered if Panama had taken this possibilit y into account.  The representative of Panama
 agreed that 
rules of origin could have been used, but that Pa nama had consistently appl ied a policy of exclusion 
as a mechanism for the protection a nd security of sensitive products. 
16. The Chairman  noted that the consideration of the go ods and services aspects of the Free Trade 
Agreement between Panama and Si ngapore had allowed Members to clarify a number of questions 
and oral discussion of the Agreement could be co ncluded in accordance with paragraph 11 of the 
Transparency Mechanism.  If any delegations wished  to ask follow-up questions they were invited to 
forward submissions in writing to the Secretariat by  28 April and Parties were asked to submit replies 
in writing by no later than 12 May 2008.  In acc ordance with paragraph 13 of the Transparency 
Mechanism all written submissions, as well as minutes of  this meeting would be circulated promptly, 
in all WTO official languages, and would be made available on the WTO website. 
17. The Committee took note  of the comments made. 
__________