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