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Taxation and Customs Union
News article22 November 2019Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union

The Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Singapore has entered into force on 21 November 2019

It is the first “new generation” bilateral Agreement signed with a Southeast Asian country.

The Free Trade Agreement contains a chapter on Customs and Trade Facilitation and introduces facilitation in the field of customs, new commitments to modernisation and simplification of customs procedures and improvements to speed up physical controls of the goods. It also strengthens the cooperation between the EU and Singapore customs authorities to ensure safety and security and to fight fraud.

In addition, the Agreement contains a Protocol providing for flexible and simple Rules of Origin. In particular, it contains broad cumulation possibilities, where cumulation with ASEAN countries benefitting from the Generalized System of Preferences or having an FTA with the EU is possible. In addition, the Origin Protocol provides for a system of declaration of origin where approved exporters may themselves declare the origin of their products.

Details

Publication date
22 November 2019
Author
Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union