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WASHINGTON - The
United States today published the entire text of the proposed U.S.-Singapore
Free Trade Agreement (FTA), an 800-plus page document spanning the 21 chapters
of the FTA. It includes the agreement's complete timetables for eliminating
duties on bilateral trade, rules of origin for goods and the detailed schedules
of commitments in services and investment, including financial services. The
Administration also published today 24 detailed issue summaries of the
U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement, and anticipates that the full text of that
agreement will be made public at the end of this month.
"These are
first-rate, leading edge agreements that will benefit American workers, farmers,
consumers and industry," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. "By
releasing the texts well before these agreements are signed, and months before
Congress will vote on them under TPA procedures, the public and interested
parties will have ample time to review for themselves the results of our
negotiations."
Publication of
the proposed U.S.-Singapore FTA represents the Administration's commitment to an
open and public process of reviewing trade agreements by all interested parties.
Public summaries and fact sheets were made immediately available upon conclusion
of the agreements. The full texts of both agreements have been available to
members of Congress and the approximately 700 private sector advisers since
early January. In addition, as negotiations on the agreements progressed over
the past two years, the Administration has provided Congress and the official
private sector advisors U.S. negotiating proposals in advance of formally
tabling them with Singapore and Chile. U.S. negotiators also held more than 100
meetings with some 700 cleared advisors from business, farm groups, labor
unions, environmental groups, consumer organizations, and state governments to
discuss and seek their advice, on U.S. negotiating positions.
On February 28,
the 31 officially chartered advisory committees reported to the President and
the Congress on the two FTAs. Virtually all of the committees expressed
overwhelming support for both agreements.
Since the
negotiations with Singapore and Chile were completed, U.S. and Chilean and
Singaporean lawyers have been reviewing the FTAs for legal clarity and
consistency. The legal review of the Chile FTA text requires additional work
because both English and Spanish texts are equally authentic, and each must be
fully reviewed and verified; the Singapore text is in English only. Final legal
reviews are expected to be completed over the coming weeks.
Previous U.S.
free trade agreements have been made public at various stages. The U.S.-Canada
FTA, was released first in outline form and the complete text of the proposed
agreement was made public two months later. The draft NAFTA text was released to
the public several weeks after the proposed agreement was announced and was
finalized over a period of weeks thereafter as part of a three-way legal review.
The U.S.- Jordan FTA was made public only after it was signed.
The proposed U.S.-Singapore
FTA and the issue-by-issue summaries of the proposed
U.S.-Chile FTA are available on USTR's website at www.ustr.gov
