Partnership deal with Singapore moves step closer

By BRIAN FALLOW

WELLINGTON - New Zealand and Singaporean officials are due to meet again next month in what their respective trade ministers hope will be the final negotiations needed to thrash out a "closer economic partnership" between the two countries.

After meeting his Singaporean counterpart George Yeo in Darwin two weeks ago Trade Minister Jim Sutton said they had reached agreement in principle. He would not be drawn on what the sticking points were.

But the Singaporeans are understood to have sought concessions on rules of origin, the minimum degree of value added in Singapore needed for goods to qualify for tariff-free entry into New Zealand and vice versa.

New Zealand's concerns related more to trade in services, like consulting, than in goods.

Mr Sutton said yesterday that, as with CER with Australia, concluding the closer economic partnership agreement would only be the start of on ongoing process of dialogue between the two countries.

"Issues of regulatory harmonisation are still in front of us. If we get the partnership established we will spend the next 20 years building on that, deepening it and perhaps broadening it by extending it to other countries."

In terms of the trade in goods, New Zealand and Singapore were already two of the most open markets, he said.

Plans for a free-trade agreement with Singapore were announced during the Apec leaders meeting in Auckland last September. The target date is January 1 next year.