S'pore signals FTA with EU a priority

S'pore signals FTA with EU a priority

LISBON: Singapore said on Tuesday it would like to complete a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union before a similar pact is reached between the bloc and the ten-member ASEAN grouping of southeast Asian nations.

"An EU-ASEAN arrangement may take some time to come about," Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told reporters in Lisbon following talks with his Portuguese counterpart Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

"In the meantime we can consider an EU-Singapore free trade arrangement," he added.

"An EU-Singapore free trade agreement would be of interest to both the EU and Singapore and of course it could pave the way for a later EU-ASEAN arrangement."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singpore, Thailand and Vietnam -- agreed earlier this year to create a European-style common market by 2020.

Singapore had wanted the common market to be established earlier, by 2015 at the latest.

Goh began a three-day official visit to Portugal on Monday. He is scheduled to travel to Nigeria and Japan before returning to Singapore on Dec. 13.--AFP