EU-Singapore FTA - more than just free trade

November 2019 | Singapore

The European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) enters into force today (21 November 2019). The fact that it took the EU and Singapore, who see eye-to-eye on many trade matters, ten years to get this done indicates how hard it is to get wide and deep agreements negotiated and implemented. Don’t be fooled by public announcements of ambitious timelines and quick conclusions of other agreements – those timelines are usually missed and the quickly concluded agreements tend to be quite narrow and shallow.