Trade Agreements Between Us And Singapore

Workers` rights. (Chapter 17) In the free trade agreement, labour obligations are part of the central text of the trade agreement. Both sides should reaffirm their obligations as members of the International Labour Organization and strive to ensure that their national laws provide for labour standards consistent with internationally recognized labour principles. The agreement also contains the language that it is inappropriate to weaken or reduce internal labour security in order to promote trade or investment. The agreement also requires the parties to effectively enforce their own national labour laws. This obligation can be implemented through the dispute resolution mechanisms of the agreement (see section on dispute resolution). For the United States, trade barriers are also low, with the exception of some protected sectors such as light trucks and textiles and clothing. Table 2 shows that in 2002, the United States collected $87.5 million in tariffs on Singapore`s imports amounting to US$14,115.8 million, for an average U.S. duty of 0.6%. This low average tariff is the result of a combination of low tariffs on most products and relatively high tariffs on a small number of protected products.

For example, for knitted clothing, the United States collected $43.4 million for an average duty of 18.6% and $8.5 million for weaving items for an average fee of 16.3%. Average tariffs on different food products were also relatively high (7.3%) and plastics (5.4%). For electrical machinery and installations, the tariff was only 0.3% on average and 0.1% for machines. Other duties decreased from 0.4 to 2.4%. The removal of U.S. import duties under the free trade agreement would therefore have an impact on tariffs on the importation of clothing, other food products and, to a lesser extent, plastics. SINGAPORE – Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States to deepen economic cooperation and extend trade finance and investment support to their respective businesses. Singapore implemented a free trade agreement with New Zealand (effective 1 January 2001) and with the European Free Trade Area (effective 1 January 2003, which includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) and concluded an agreement with Japan in January 2002 that excludes agricultural products.