Singapore, US celebrate two decades of free trade 

Bilateral trade nearly tripled, investments surged in the past two decades.

Singapore and the United States on Monday celebrated the 20th anniversary of their free trade agreement (FTA) which helped boost trade and facilitate increased investments between the two nations. 

Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong in a speech highlighted how bilateral trade between the two nations nearly tripled in the last two decades that the FTA was in place. 

In 2022, the US was Singapore’s second biggest trading partner overall and the top trading partner in services, while the city-state was the US’s 17th largest. 

Gan said the Lion City was also the top destination of US investments in the Indo-Pacific and the seventh worldwide with more and more American companies choosing the city-state as their regional hub. On the ground, he said the bilateral trade and investment between the two countries supports almost 250,000 jobs in the US alone.

Singapore is also a major investor in the world’s largest economy, being the third-largest Asian investor in the US.

“The USSFTA has been a pathfinder for our trade and investment relationship over the past 20 years,” Gan said in his speech. 

“In the next 20 years and beyond, the next bound of economic cooperation between the US and Singapore can also serve as a pathfinder to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies like AI, create innovation ecosystems that are both trusted and vibrant; and ensure that our collaboration can be a model and a bridge for other countries, to maximise our efforts and investments in technology and innovation,” he added.