EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/388

(2004/C 78 E/0411)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1838/03

by Roger Helmer (PPE-DE), Charles Tannock (PPE-DE), Sir Robert Atkins (PPE-DE), Giles Chichester (PPE-DE), Hartmut Nassauer (PPE-DE) and Jules Maaten (ELDR) to the Commission

(3 June 2003)

Subject: Free Trade Agreement between Singapore and the EU

Does the Commission recognise the substantial mutual benefits that could result from an Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore? Does the Commission share our concern that Singapore either has, or is negotiating, FTAs with surrounding countries including Japan, China and India, and that the EU may therefore be disadvantaged in dealing with Singapore unless we too have an FTA? Does the Commission agree that Singapore's status as a country with tiny agricultural production makes it a particularly straightforward country with which to negotiate an FTA?

We understand that tentative offers of an FTA from the EU to Singapore have been linked to rather specific conditions, for example that the FTA should apply to at least two countries from ASEAN, Singapore and at least one other. Would the Commission not agree that, given the benefits to the EU, we should seek to make the offer as easy as possible for Singapore to accept? Would the Commission agree that the wide variations in economic and political development between ASEAN countries might make the ‘Two Countries’ criterion very difficult for Singapore to fulfil, and might prove an unnecessary and counter-productive barrier to an FTA?

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(24 June 2003)

The priority for Union attention and resources remains the multilateral negotiations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the Doha Development Agenda.

The Commission, nevertheless, follows closely and with interest the development of various regional economic integration initiatives currently taking place within East Asia, including the Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations which Singapore has already concluded with Japan, New Zealand, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Australia, and the United States, and is currently pursuing with India, Canada, and Mexico.

Singapore has also made a proposal to enter into negotiations on a FTA with the Union. Singapore, as a trading nation with a very small domestic market, is widely recognised to be one of the most open economies in the world, with very few existing barriers to trade. Negotiating any FTA requires substantial resources and effort, which must be justified in terms of the associated political and economic benefits. This would be true even for a country such as Singapore, whose lack of an agricultural sector could be expected to facilitate certain areas of negotiations.

In this instance, in order to have a clearer understanding of the possible benefits to the Union from such an agreement, in terms of specific market access barriers or other regulatory practices in Singapore which are of the greatest importance to European business, the Commission requested several European business organisations to collect information from their members. Until now, neither Singapore nor interested parties in Europe have presented convincing evidence that the Union would draw any substantial benefit from a FTA with Singapore or that an agreement would promote a stronger trade and economic relationship with the other countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) or elsewhere in the region. Furthermore, the Union business sector has yet to indicate that there are areas where it feels that Singapore's bilateral FTAs have placed it at a disadvantage.

At this time, the Commission has not made any proposal — tentative or otherwise — of a FTA to Singapore, nor has it stated any specific conditions or preconditions for a potential future FTA. The Commission is developing other avenues besides a Free Trade Agreement to enhance or trade and investment relations with ASEAN as a whole, by developing more effective co-operation on regulatory issues.