"Countries should develop a relationship based on coopetition. This means that countries can cooperate in mutually beneficial area while competing in other areas."
Quoting Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat's thoughts on China-U.S. relations voiced in May, Mr. Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Education of Singapore, shed light on the future of free trade in Asia-Pacific during a roundtable discussion in Beijing on Tuesday.
As one of the World Trade Roundtable Series held by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), the discussion focused on the growing cooperation between Singapore and China amid current global uncertainty concerning free trade and related issues.
During his keynote speech, Chee recognized the multi-faceted cooperation emerging between China and Singapore through several key bilateral projects, such as the establishment and upgrade of the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, and the operation of the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City project.
Regarding economic issues, Mr. Chee highlighted the role of bilateral business councils and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in facilitating trade, investment and business exchanges.
"We concluded the China-Singapore FTA upgrade negotiations last year, demonstrating our joint commitment to continue to open up markets and to evolve our rule-based trading system in accordance with market requirements," he said.
Regarding current uncertainties in both the regional and global economy, Chee reinforced the importance of multilateral institutions in underpinning the international system enabling countries to deepen collaboration, notably the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
In view of the ongoing fourth industrial revolution, Chee stressed the shift of the WTO's focus. "When the WTO was created, its rules mainly targeted trade in goods. However, we have now moved on to services, intellectual property rights, which will require a different set of rules. This is why Singapore strongly supports the ongoing negotiations on the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on E-Commerce.
"It is in the interests of Singapore, China and many other countries to safeguard this global trade architecture consisting of open and fair competition, and rule-based dispute resolution," he added, hoping for an improved international economic environment in this regard.
As China and the U.S. are both key economic partners of Singapore, Chee also noted that building trust, or at least reducing mistrust, should be the first step in resolving current trade friction.
"More bridges, not walls, should be built to maintain openness for continuous dialogues and discussions, in order to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution," he said.
