14 countries, including Singapore, launch trade and investment pact

Partnership of small and mid-sized WTO members backs rules-based trading system

- Ovais Subhani Senior Business Correspondent

Fourteen small and medium-sized members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including Singapore, established a partnership on Sept 16 to boost their trading links, amid strains on the rules-based trading system.

The other members of the Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership, launched in a ministerial meeting held virtually, are Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, who represented Singapore at the meeting, said the partnership reflects member nations' collective purpose to support the rules-based multilateral trading system, and address the challenges of today and tomorrow.

"We hope the FIT Partnership will be a catalyst for innovation that can be scaled up to the multilateral level to strengthen the WTO," he said in a statement.

"Singapore will continue to work with our partners to ensure that our economies remain open, connected and future-ready."

The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said the initiative by the 14 partners came in the light of recent developments in global trade that have placed significant strain on the rules-based trading system, threatening to fragment markets and dampen global growth.

Economic observers have said that US President Donald Trump's on-and-off tariff policy threatens to depress global trade and stall economic growth, especially for small and open economies.