On July 20, 2001, Singapore and the United States concluded the fourth round of negotiations on the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in London. Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-large, led the Singapore delegation. Mr. Ralph F. Ives, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Asia-Pacific and APEC Affairs, led the U.S. delegation.
The two sides continued intensive negotiations on a wide range of issues, including trade in goods, customs and rules of origin, textiles, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, and government procurement. Significant progress was achieved in services and rules of origin. The two sides agreed to adopt the negative list approach for services and investment and to develop state of the art rules of origin to take into account the globalization of manufacturing in a knowledge-based world economy. Additional progress was achieved on enlarging the areas of convergence between the two sides, resulting in a revised document of consolidated texts. The two sides also agreed on a deadline of August 31, 2001 for proposed text in most areas. Considerable work remains on this complex undertaking, which is designed to achieve a world-class FTA.
The two sides plan to resume negotiations during the week of September 17-21, 2001 in London, and to schedule video conferences on the full range of issues before the next round of negotiations.
