S'pore comes under pressure from U.S. businesses

S'pore comes under pressure from U.S. businesses

SINGAPORE (AFP): American businesses want Singapore to further open up its financial services sector and toughen enforcement of intellectual property rights laws as part of a free trade agreement (FTA), a report said Tuesday.

US businesses are also concerned that a free trade pact with Singapore could lead to an influx of cheaper goods from Southeast Asia because of the island-state's role as a key regional transshipment hub, the Business Times reported.

The recommendations were contained in a long list given by 121 groups and individuals to the US Trade Representative's office, which had sought feedback on the proposed US-Singapore FTA, the report said.

It quoted the president of the Coalition of Service Industries in the United States Bob Vastin as saying: "We want to be able to do business just like Singapore companies can do business with Singaporeans," he said.

The report said US financial institutions, engineers, lawyers and pharmaceutical firms were among those lobbying for access to the Singapore market on equal terms with local companies.

The US service industries coalition also wants a more transparent regulatory and licensing regime in Singapore.

This covers finance, education, energy, maritime, engineering, express delivery as well as the legal and telecommunications sectors.

The coalition wants Singapore to remove the limit on the number of US-owned banks allowed to operate with full bank licenses and allow American card issuers to have access to the automatic teller machine networks of domestic banks.

Last week, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also heads the city-state's de facto central bank, announced reforms to further opening up the financial sector.

The reforms included the opening of applications for two more full banking licenses for foreign banks. Four foreign banks already have full banking licenses -- Dutch bank ABN Amro, BNP Paribas of France, Citigroup of the United States and Standard Chartered Bank of Britain.

However, foreign banks are still barred from taking majority control of a local bank and from having access to the ATM network of local banks.

The US groups also said protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights were inadequate, the report said.

Singapore and the US have expressed hopes of concluding an FTA by the end of the year.

Singapore has signed an FTA with New Zealand and is negotiating similar pacts with Japan, Canada and Mexico, among others.