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.