[asia-apec 1581] Singapore Straits Times 10/09/00 on Singapore FTA

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Singapore Straits Times
10 September 2000


S'pore, NZ free trade pact deemed a done deal

Prime Minister Goh says that all that is left to be done is to sign the
document when it is ready, and New Zealand expects that will be soon



By IRENE NG
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT


NEW YORK -- Barely a year after the idea was mooted, the free trade pact
between Singapore and New Zealand is considered a done deal for Singapore.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said all that is needed to be done was to sign
the final document once it is ready.

And it is expected to be ready ""reasonably soon'', New Zealand Prime
Minister Helen Clark said, adding that New Zealand was ""enthusiastic''
about the pact.

The two leaders were speaking to reporters after their bilateral meeting
here on the sidelines of the UN Millennium Summit.

Ms Clark explained that the process of signing international treaties in New
Zealand has to go through several stages and be scrutinised by several
parliamentary bodies.

""But we are very, very close,'' she said.

""This process began, after all, with the very positive meetings with PM Goh
and Mrs Jenny Shipley last year.''

Mrs Shipley, of the National Party, was then New Zealand prime minister.
Last September, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in Auckland, she and Mr
Goh agreed to start negotiations on a free trade agreement which would
hasten the pace of liberalisation between the two countries.

Ms Clark told reporters: ""I would expect the National Party to carry
through on its original commitment.''

The idea was that the FTA could be the harbinger of a wider arrangement
involving countries such as Australia and Chile.

Mr Goh believed that such bilateral FTAs would be useful for forcing the
pace of wider trade liberalisation, given that Apec was not moving as fast
as it was hoped.

Agreeing, Ms Clark added that the bilateral pact is a ""demonstration to
others that this is possible with goodwill and painstaking negotiation''.

""I think when Chileans see the progress we have made on this, they will
show more interest. There has also been some indication of greater interest
from Australia now that they've seen that Singapore and New Zealand have
actually pulled this off,'' she added.

This message seems all the more forceful, given that in New Zealand, the FTA
has led to a political juggling act for the Labour-led minority coalition
government of Ms Clark.

Promoting the FTA has brought it into conflict with its avowedly anti-free
trade coalition supporters, the Alliance and Green parties.

But Ms Clark seemed confident that this problem could be overcome.

Besides the FTA, both leaders also discussed this week's tragedy in West
Timor, which caused great consternation among leaders gathered at the UN
summit.

Three UN relief workers were killed by thousands of refugees and pro-Jakarta
militiamen.

Mr Goh said Singapore hoped that the situation in both West Timor and East
Timor would stabilise.

""Indonesia, as the Government of West Timor, has to ensure that UN
facilities and personnel are not attacked, but as Indonesia is a vast
country undergoing political transition, we understand its difficulty in
enforcing their word in far away provinces,'' he said.

Mr Goh also had bilateral meetings on Thursday, with Botswana President
Festus Mogae and International Labour Organisation director-general Juan
Somavia.

Yesterday, he met Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Rwanda President Paul
Kagame, and Morocco Crown Prince Moulay Rachid.