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The UK has signed a free trade agreement with Singapore covering £ 17.6 billion worth of trade, said international trade secretary Liz Truss.
Along with a photograph of her with Singapore’s Trade Minister Chan Chun Sing, Truss said on Twitter that it was the second-largest deal of its kind that Britain has signed in the Asia-Pacific region.
The agreement largely reproduces an existing pact between the EU and Singapore.
It eliminates tariffs, gives both countries access to each other’s service markets, and reduces non-tariff barriers in electronics, cars and vehicle parts, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and renewable energy generation, the ministry said.
The tariffs will be removed by November 2024, the same schedule as the agreement between the EU and Singapore, a former British colony with close ties to London.
It comes as UK and EU negotiators begin one last push to salvage the chances of a post-Brexit trade deal after Downing Street warned that the gaps between the two sides remain “very large.”
Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held crucial talks over dinner in Brussels on Wednesday with the aim of breaking the deadlock, but key differences prevail.
Truss said the pact with Singapore “ensures certainty” for business, would mean “deeper future ties in digital and services trade” and was “further proof that we can succeed as an independent trading nation.”
The UK and Canada reached an agreement last month to continue operating under the same terms as the current EU agreement after the Brexit transition period ends.
With Press Association and Agence France-Presse
