Singapore, Taiwan start trade talks

Singapore, Taiwan start trade talks

SINGAPORE: Singapore and Taiwan have started talks on a free trade agreement, with Taipei hoping for significant progress by the end of the year, a Singapore newspaper reported Monday.

"Singapore has expressed significant interest in moving forward with the agreement," The Business Times quoted Wayne Wu, director of Taiwan's Board of Foreign Trade, as saying.

He described the talks held so far as preliminary.

"We still need to conduct a feasibility study to understand what aspects Taiwan needs from the agreement," Wu told the newspaper in Taipei.

The city-state and Japan signed the first free trade pact in Asia in January, and another was clinched with New Zealand last year. -- DPA