Understanding the EU–Singapore Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

In 2007, the EU launched negotiations with ASEAN to create a megaregional FTA. Such a trade agreement would hook together two large and diverse regional actors—the then 27 members of the EU (EU27) with 10 members of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). Taken as a bloc, ASEAN represented a large and growing economic market for the EU, as shown in Figure 1. Trade in goods with ASEAN was larger than trade with Japan, Brazil, India and the Gulf states. Services trade was also significant and growing. Finally, foreign direct investment was substantial.