Today, the EU and Singapore concluded negotiations for a Digital Trade Agreement (DTA). This deal is the first EU agreement of its kind, reflecting the EU’s aspiration to be a global standard-setter for digital trade rules and cross-border data flows.
The DTA will complement the 2019 EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, connecting both economies further and benefiting businesses and consumers that want to engage in digital trade. It will also provide binding rules that build consumer trust, ensure predictability and legal certainty for businesses, as well as removing and preventing the emergence of unjustified barriers to digital trade. In addition, it will unlock new economic opportunities while ensuring a safe online environment.
This deal will boost EU-Singapore trade relations by:
- facilitating digitally-enabled trade in goods and services;
- ensuring cross-border data flows free of unjustified barriers;
- enhancing trust in digital trade, including through strong rules on spam.
This agreement puts the EU and Singapore at the global forefront of digital policy development while upholding open and fair digital economies. It promotes the EU’s approach for building digital and data rules with people and their rights at its core, and it ensures the EU and Singapore preserve policy space to develop and implement the policies required to address new challenges in the digital economy.
