AI can be the next leap for US-Singapore FTA, says Gan

Minister says agreement can serve as a pathfinder for next phase of cooperation

- Bhagyashree Garekar

It tripled trade and demonstrated the benefits of a rules-based trading order. Next, the free trade agreement (FTA) between Singapore and the US can help usher in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said in Washington at an event on April 29 celebrating the deal's 20th anniversary.

And as much as the FTA has been a pathfinder for the bilateral trade and investment relationship for the last two decades, Mr Gan said, he hoped its next phase will be as impactful.

"In the next 20 years and beyond, the next bound of economic cooperation between the US and Singapore can also serve as a pathfinder to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies like AI," said the minister, who is on an official visit to the US.

Recounting how the deal came about in a speech at a reception co-hosted by the US-Asean Business Council, Mr Gan said it was "a bridge built at the right place, at the right time".

The decision to launch negotiations on the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) was made when then US President Bill Clinton and then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong met for a round of midnight golf in Brunei in November 2000, he said.

After 11 rounds of intensive negotiations, Mr Goh signed it with Mr Clinton's successor George W. Bush in 2003, and it came into effect in 2004.

Speaking at the same event, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai noted that the deal had sailed through Congress with "flying colours" and bipartisan support, getting the nod from 63 per cent in the House and 67 per cent in the Senate.