At the end of his visit to Vietnam, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also encouraged Vietnam to take a forward-leaning approach on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade deal involving the 10 ASEAN countries and six others, including Japan, Australia, India and China.
HANOI: Even as the United States has pulled out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), both Singapore and Vietnam are “watching how things will develop” on the trade pact, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the end of his visit to Vietnam on Friday (Mar 24).
The future of the 12-nation free trade deal has been hanging in the balance since the Trump administration’s withdrawal in January.
“Singapore is proceeding with the ratification. I think Vietnam has deferred their ratification but they are watching to see how the other partners play it going forward and what the Americans definitely will do,” Mr Lee added.
In a separate statement, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Trade and Industry referred to a recent meeting of TPP parties in Chile, during which „Singapore said that we hope to harvest the benefits of the agreement in a timely way, and look forward to working with the others to making this happen, including continuing with preparation for domestic ratification.”
The spokesperson added that TPP ministers will be meeting again at the sidelines of the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) meeting in May.
While Vietnam had been touted as the economy likely to benefit the most from the TPP, Mr Lee nonetheless highlighted the importance of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade deal between the ten ASEAN countries and six others, including Japan, Australia, India and China.
