RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG148/M/1 
19 November 2004 
 
 (04-5041) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Thirty-Seventh Session  
 
 
 
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN TH E EFTA STATES AND SINGAPORE 
 
Note on the Meeting of 8 October 2004  
 
Chairman:  Mr. B. Weston (Trinidad and Tobago) 
  
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/AIR/2393 
2. Under Agenda Item B.XII of its Thirty-Sev enth Session, the Committee on Regional Trade 
Agreements (CRTA or Committee) took up the exam ination of the goods and services aspects of the 
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EFTA St ates and Singapore.  The following topics were 
discussed: 
 A. General Remarks 
Goods aspects
: 
 B. Background Information on the Agreement 
 C. Trade Provisions 
  Services aspects
: 
 D. Background Information on the Agreement 
 E. Provisions Affecting Trade in Services 
 
3. The Chairman  said that this was the first round of examination of the FTA between the EFTA 
States and Singapore.  The Agreement had been signe d on 26 June 2002 and had entered into force on 
1 January 2003.  It had been notified to th e WTO on 24 January 2003, as document with double 
symbol WT/REG148/N/1 – S/C/N/226.  The text of the Agreement could be found in document WT/REG148/1.  He proposed to organize the examination by first asking the Parties and other 
Members for general comments, and then to turn to  the specifics of the Agreement looking first at the 
goods aspects, followed by the services aspects, using the respective Standard Formats 
(WT/REG148/3) and (WT/REG148/4) to guide the debate. 
A. G
ENERAL REMARKS  
4. The representative of Singapore , speaking also on behalf of the EFTA States, said that the 
EFTA-Singapore FTA (ESFTA) had been conceived with the aim to establish close and lasting 
relations that would strengthen the important links  between the EFTA States and Singapore;  create 
conditions that would encourage economic, trade a nd investment relations between both Parties;  
provide a catalyst to broader regional co-operati on between Europe and As ia;  and build on their 
WTO rights and obligations to create a more predicta ble, freer and open global trading environment.  
He stated that the ESFTA was a comprehensive FTA, which was in conformity with GATT Article 
XXIV and GATS Article V, and which built on the f undamental principles of the multilateral trading 
system such as national treatment and transparency .  He proceeded to highlight some of the goods WT/REG148/M/1 
Page 2  
 
 components of the ESFTA and reiterated that the Parti es considered these to be fully consistent with 
GATT Article XXIV:8(b).  Customs duties on all i ndustrial goods, except for a very limited number 
of products listed in Annex V, orig inating in either the EFTA States or Singapore, had been abolished 
on entry into force of the ESFTA.  Tariff concession s had also been made on agricultural products, 
listed in Annex III and in the bilate ral agricultural agreements.  Both Parties had also undertaken not 
to adopt or maintain any import and export prohibiti on or restriction, other than customs duties and 
taxes, whether made effective through quotas, impor t or export licenses or other measures.  Rules of 
origin criteria included: wholly obtained goods;  goods manufactured exclusively from originating 
materials;  and goods that had undergone sufficien t working or processing that satisfied the product-
specific rules of origin set out in Appendix 2 to An nex I.  He pointed out that the Parties had agreed 
not to apply anti-dumping measures in relation to pr oducts originating in another Party.  Such a 
provision, he said, was fully in line with the oblig ation of Article XXIV:8 (b) to eliminate restrictive 
regulations on substantially all the trade.  He then  proceeded to highlight some of the more pertinent 
services components in ESFTA, which were also considered by the Parties to be in full compliance with the disciplines of GATS Article V.  The ESFTA  enshrined the key disciplines of the GATS such 
as market access and national treatment;  it gave benef its to "natural" and "legal" persons of the other 
Party and services supplied by them, and it provided fo r legal persons of a non-Party to benefit from 
the Agreement if they engaged in substantive business ope rations in the territory of the other Party.  In 
accordance with GATS Article V:1, the ESFTA ensu red a comprehensive coverage of services 
sectors, as well as all four modes of supply with in each committed sector. Commitments were made 
on a positive list approach with GATS-plus elements.  He concluded by saying that the EFTA States 
and Singapore viewed the ESFTA as a living and dynamic  agreement and remarked that at the first 
ESFTA review in May 2004, both Parties undert ook to further liberalize trade between them. 
5. The representative of Switzerland
, speaking on behalf of the EFTA States, fully supported the 
statement made by his colleague from Singapore.  He indicated that the ESFTA was the first FTA 
concluded between EFTA and a South East Asian country and that it covered all major areas of the 
EFTA States' trade and investment relations with  Singapore.  He added that the preferential 
arrangement under the FTA was complementing the multilateral efforts undertaken in the framework 
of the WTO and the Doha Development Agenda.  Reca lling an issue that had been raised earlier in 
that day's  meeting concerning the availability of  annexes and protocols to FTAs involving the EFTA 
States, he pointed out that all the texts related to  the current Agreement as well as to the other FTAs 
under examination had been handed over to the Secret ariat and were thus available to interested 
Members. 
6. On that point, the representative of the United States , asked the Secretariat whether they could 
comment on the length of the agricultural Annexes and Protocols of these Agreements and whether 
these could be circulated as documents.  The representative of the Secretariat , said that she could not 
comment on that issue at that time, but she would look into it to see what could be done.  The 
representative of the United States , as a point of clarification, said th at his request did not apply to all 
agreements, but only to those being discussed at th at day's meeting, such as the EFTA – Croatia FTA, 
where it had been noted that the agri cultural chapters were very short in length.  The representative of 
Chile , pointed out that access to Annex VII regarding the Schedule of Specific Commitments was of 
key importance in order to analyse the scope of th e Agreement.  The representative of the Secretariat , 
recalled that the schedules were not being circulated  due to the fact that the Secretariat could not 
decide on the type and amount of information that  had to be distributed with respect to each 
agreement.  She added that if all the documentation rela ted to all agreements were to be circulated this 
would result in a huge amount of paper.  However,  if the Committee wished to receive the specific 
documentation of certain agreements that was some thing that could be done.  The representative of 
Chile  acknowledged the point; however, she reiterated that access to certain information was of key 
importance in order to analyse an agreement.  She remarked that improvement in the type of 
information provided in the standard format would help solving the problem and avoid that annexes  
be circulated.  The representative of Switzerland  informed the Committee that all the texts related to  WT/REG148/M/1 
 Page 3 
 
 
 the Agreement were available on the internet and t hus, with the correct URL address, accessible to all 
interested Members.  The representative of the United States , noted that when they had tried to access 
the EFTA website in accordance to the URL addre ss provided in the text of the EFTA – Croatia 
Agreement, they had not been able to obtain th e information requested.  That may have been a 
technical problem; however, in order to expedite th e work of the Committee it  seemed easier to him 
that the Secretariat circulated the relevant Annex es and Protocols since they were already available 
with the Secretariat and were short in length.  The Chairman , suggested that the matter be discussed 
informally at the end of the meeting in  order to find an acceptable solution. 
B. GOODS ASPECTS – BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AGREEMENT  
7. The Chairman , recalled that the terms of reference for the examination of the goods aspects 
had been adopted on 13 March 2003 by the Council for Trade in Goods as contained in document 
WT/REG148/2. 
8. The representative of the European Communities  noted that according to the Parties, 96 per 
cent of total agricultural trade would enjoy duty-fre e treatment under the FTA.  In order to further 
clarify the total coverage in the bilateral agricu ltural agreements, he was interested in knowing 
whether the elimination of tariffs for 96 per cen t of agricultural trade would entail quota-free 
treatment as well.  Furthermore, he asked the Parties if they could indicate on aggregate the 
percentage of tariff lines where full elimination of tariffs and quotas applied.  The representative of 
Switzerland  said that they would submit the reply in writing. 
C. GOODS ASPECTS – TRADE PROVISIONS  
9. The representative of Japan  was interested in knowing from the Parties whether the 
Agreement contained any provision related to the app lication of global safeguards.  The representative 
of Switzerland  said that the Agreement provided for em ergency measures applicable between the 
Parties, but contained no such reference with resp ect to global safeguards.  On that point, the 
representative of the European Communities  noted that despite the high level of overall trade 
coverage in the Agreement and the limited bilatera l trade between the Parties, the FTA still provided 
for bilateral emergency measures.  He also noted th at in Singapore's other agreements it was not very 
common to have bilateral emergency measures.  In that respect, he asked the EFTA States if they 
could explain why they perceived it to be necessary to  allow for the possibility of such measures.  The 
representative of Switzerland  said that the reason for the inclusio n of such provision was that it was 
normally provided for in other EFTA's agreements.  He added that although tr ade between the Parties 
was at that moment limited, that could increase in the years to come. 
10. The Chairman  said that the first round of examination of the goods aspects of the FTA 
between the EFTA States and Singapore had allo wed the Committee to clarify some questions. 
However, a number of issues remained pending.  He asked delegations wishing to submit written 
questions to forward them to the Secretariat by 29 October 2004 and for the Parties to submit written 
replies by not later than 3 December 2004.  Th e examination of the goods aspects of the Agreement 
would continue at a future Session of the Committee. 
D. SERVICES ASPECTS - BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AGREEMENT  
11. Moving to the services aspects of the Agreement, the Chairman  reminded the Committee that 
the decision to refer the ESFTA for examination to the CRTA had been taken on 28 February 2003 by 
the Council for Trade in Services, as contained in document S/C/M/65. 
12. The representative of the European Communities  noted that Singapore had liberalised trade in 
services with the EFTA countries on the basis of a po sitive list of commitments whereas liberalisation WT/REG148/M/1 
Page 4  
 
 of trade in services between Singapore and Australia (SAFTA) was based on a negative list of 
commitments.  Given the differences between the tw o Agreements, he was interested in knowing to 
what extent Singapore’s commitments under th e Singapore-EFTA FTA went further than its 
commitments under the SAFTA or vice versa .  He added that he would submit the question in writing.  
The representative of Singapore
 acknowledged that the Agreements had been drafted on different 
basis and stated that for that reason it would prove very difficult to compare the level of commitments 
or the type of commitments made under the tw o Agreements.  Nevertheless, he said that both 
Agreements provided for a high level of commitments , they did not exclude any sector and they met 
the requirements of the GATS.  He added that if th ere were any specific sectors of interest to the 
European Communities as to whether they were c overed under either of the Agreements they would 
be happy to answer those questions in writing. 
E. SERVICES ASPECTS – PROVISIONS AFFECTING TRADE IN SERVICES  
13. The representative of Chile  noted that the Services Chap ter, which included commercial 
presence, was based on a positive list approach whereas the commitments under the Investment 
Chapter were scheduled on a negative list approach.  In this respect, she was interested in knowing 
from the Parties how these two chapters related to each other, particularly with respect to the 
reservations.  For example, if it was decided not to apply any restrictions to investments in 
telecommunications, would it then be possible th at a telecommunication reservation could establish 
some kind of restriction.  Further, she asked the Parties what exactly was covered under the Agreement in services;  although the Standard Form at indicated that all sectors were included, 
Members had received no listing of the sectors wh ich were actually included.  Recalling the 
discussion held at the beginning of the examination, she noted that the circulation of annexes would 
not be necessary if standard formats would be draf ted in such a way as to provide information on 
these aspects.  The representative of Singapore,
 as a preliminary answer, indicated that commercial 
presence for services providers was also covered by th e Investment Chapter; in other words Mode 3 
applied to both Chapters.  He added that the Investment Chapter contained disciplines for the 
protection of investors regardless of whether they were service providers or engaged in goods.  He 
asked the representative of Chile to  submit the question in writing for a more detailed reply.  With 
respect to the second point, he informed the Co mmittee that the Annexes regarding the specific 
commitments were available at the Secretariat, and also both on the EFTA States and the Singapore government websites.  In any case, he said that he would be happy to provide these to Chile. 
14. The Chairman
 said that the first round of examin ation of the services aspects of the FTA 
between the EFTA States and Singapore had allowed the Committee to clarify some questions, but a 
number of issues remained pending.  He asked de legations wishing to su bmit written questions to 
forward them to the Secretariat by 29 October 2004 a nd for the Parties to submit written replies by not 
later than 3 December 2004.  The examination of the services aspects of the Agreement would 
continue at a future Session of the Committee. 
15. The Committee took note  of the comments made. 
__________