The EU states have finally given the go-ahead for the trade agreement negotiated between the EU and Singapore. The agreement will now come into force on 21 November, it was said by the meeting of EU finance ministers.
The pact with Singapore is split into two parts as one of the first trade agreements. One of them - which aims at laying down investment rules - still awaits ratification in the individual EU states before it can enter into force.
Within five years, almost all tariffs should disappear. Excluded are imports of fishery products and some agricultural products into Europe. Trade in goods between the EU and Singapore has recently reached around € 53 billion a year.
After years of preparations in 2018, the EU and Singapore signed a joint free trade agreement. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Council President Donald Tusk, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country held the Presidency of the EU, signed the treaty to abolish tariffs and other barriers to trade at a Europe-Asia summit Brussels.