The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) of Singapore said the sovereignty will continue to participate in other regional integration initiatives after the United States indicated it will get out of the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“The US has indicated that it will pull out of the TPP agreement. Without the participation of the US, the TPP agreement as signed cannot come into effect,” MTI said in an official statement on January 24.
But the agency said that “there are other regional integration initiatives still ongoing, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. Singapore will continue to participate in these initiatives.”
Singapore, it further declared, is committed to pursuing a rules-based trading system and greater regional integration. “The agreement that the TPP parties has negotiated is one such pathway to achieve stronger trade linkages that will promote growth opportunities and job creation in all the member countries.”
“We will have to discuss the way forward with the other TPP partners first. Each of the partners will have to carefully study the new balance of benefits,” it said.
On January 23, newly inducted U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove the country from the TPP, making good on a pledge to scrap a deal he denounced as a “job killer” and a “rape” of U.S. interests.
The TPP trade pact was promoted by the previous U.S. leadership and the agreement was signed in 2015 by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S., and Brunei.
Photo: Merlion444
