18 Dec 2012

New EU - Singapore free trade agreement

8:35 am on 18 December 2012

The EU and Singapore have finalised a free trade agreement - the second such deal between the bloc and a major Asian trading partner.

EU-Singapore trade was worth about 74 billion euros last year.

An EU-South Korea FTA has been in operation since July 2011, and the new agreement is intended be signed early next year.

The EU is also conducting FTA negotiations with Malaysia and Vietnam, which are also members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The EU's trade surplus with Singapore last year was 8 billionn euros. The BBC reports cars accounted for a big slice of the bloc's exports.