China and Singapore sign protocol to upgrade the Free Trade Agreement

Recently, our Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong signed a protocol between the government of the People's Republic of China and the government of the Republic of Singapore on further upgrading the Free Trade Agreement on behalf of the governments of China and New Zealand respectively.

China and New Zealand jointly announced on December 8, 2020, the launch of negotiations to further upgrade the free trade agreement. Over the past three years, the working teams of both parties have conducted multiple rounds of intensive consultations and successfully completed all negotiations. In the upgraded protocol, China and New Zealand have made commitments to open services and investments in a negative list model, providing a broader market space for investors and service providers on both sides, and further expanding cooperation in emerging areas such as the digital economy.

The signing of the upgrade protocol is a new milestone in the economic and trade relations between China and New Zealand. It will further stimulate the potential of service trade and investment cooperation between the two countries and provide more solid institutional guarantees for enterprises to participate in each other's markets. In the next step, China and New Zealand will step up the implementation of their respective domestic legal procedures and strive for the early entry into force of the upgraded protocol.

In addition, the Prime Minister's Office of Singapore issued a document on the 7th Dec stating that Singapore and China will implement a 30-day mutual visa exemption agreement. Currently, the two countries are discussing detailed rules and plan to issue relevant policies in early 2024.

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