(Nov 10): A free-trade agreement between Singapore and the European Union that’s been almost a decade in the making will take effect Nov 21, the two sides announced Friday.

The announcement marks a victory for export-reliant Singapore, which becomes the first Southeast Asian nation to conclude a free-trade deal with the EU, according to documents from Singapore’s Ministry of Trade & Industry.

Singapore will remove tariffs on all EU products entering the country. The EU will remove tariffs on 84% of all Singapore products entering the EU within the first year, and the remaining 16% over a period of three to five years.

“The EU-Singapore FTA’s entry into force at this time is a strong signal by two like-minded partners on the need to continue upholding open and rules-based trade,” S Iswaran, Singapore’s minister in charge of trade relations, said at the EUSFTA gala dinner in Singapore.

Negotiators settled on the date of effect seven years after the two sides reached a commercial deal. The pact had been stymied by a European court case on the role of EU national parliaments in the ratification.

The two sides, which traded US$73.1 billion ($99.3 billion) in goods last year, already had released the full text of the deal. The agreement includes chapters on renewable energy investments, e-commerce, and intellectual property.

Singapore counted the EU as its third-largest goods trading partner in 2018, accounting for 10.9% of Singapore’s total merchandise trade, according to government figures. The city state now adds one more deal to its portfolio of 13 bilateral and 11 regional free-trade pacts.

That tally doesn’t include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which Asia-Pacific economies announced earlier this week is on track for approval by the remaining 15 members in 2020, as India exited negotiations over worry about the domestic labour force.

Singapore respects India’s decision to stay out of the deal for the time being, Iswaran said Thursday at a conference hosted by London-based Asia House.

Long-debated Singapore-EU free-trade pact takes effect Nov 21 

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Long-debated Singapore-EU free-trade pact takes effect Nov 21

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