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SINGAPORE: Singapore and Australia have signed a protocol aimed at safeguarding trade in essential items between the two countries, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Monday (Jul 27).<\/p>\n
The Protocol to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement on Economic Resilience and Essential Supplies is intended to strengthen supply chain resilience by giving both countries greater assurance over trade in essential goods.<\/p>\n
It will be incorporated into the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement and come into force after domestic procedures are completed on both sides, said MTI.<\/p>\n
Describing the protocol as a “very significant milestone”, Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Tan See Leng said it “reaffirms our shared commitment to keeping essential goods flowing during times of disruption”.<\/p>\n
He added that it would strengthen cooperation on broader issues and processes, improve transparency, and allow both countries to “fast-track” early consultations if issues arise.<\/p>\n
“Now, at a time like this – heightened \u00a0geopolitical uncertainty, increasing pressures on global supply chains – this signing of the protocol reflects the deep reservoir of strategic trust between both our countries and our shared commitment to keeping trade open, reliable and resilient.”<\/p>\n
Under the protocol, both countries “commit to endeavour not to adopt or maintain export restrictions on agreed essential items”, including petroleum oils such as diesel and liquefied natural gas.<\/p>\n
It also establishes procedures for advance notification and consultation, as well as the review and withdrawal of measures, said MTI.<\/p>\n
In addition, it will establish the Australia-Singapore Economic Resilience Dialogue to “facilitate cooperation on economic resilience and trade in essential supplies”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protocol was signed by Dr Tan and Australia’s Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell at the 15th Singapore-Australia Joint Ministerial Committee meeting in Adelaide, Australia.<\/p>\n
It was announced earlier in April<\/a> by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on the latter’s official visit to Singapore, as both countries sought to strengthen supply chain resilience amid uncertainty in global energy markets.<\/p>\n Later in the month, both countries said they had “substantially concluded”<\/a> negotiations on the protocol.<\/p>\n “I think our people in both Singapore and Australia can take some comfort and assurance from the fact that our two governments are working so closely and so effectively together,” Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan had said then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE: Singapore and Australia have signed a protocol aimed at safeguarding trade in essential items between the two countries, the Ministry of Trade and Industry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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