I have the pleasure of confirming on behalf of the EU the political conclusion of the negotiations of the Digital Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore.
We are also today holding the 2nd Ministerial Committee meeting of our successful EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2019.
Singapore is a key partner for the EU in the South-East Asian region – indeed it is our largest trade and investment partner in ASEAN. Today's Digital Trade Agreement will complement Free Trade Agreement and it shows our commitment to be at the forefront of the digital policy development. The agreement also represents the further implementation of the EU's Indo-Pacific Digital Trade Agenda. It allows us to support open digital economies that are competitive, transparent, fair, and free of unjustified barriers to international trade. This Agreement raises the ambition of digital trade rules globally including on protection of source code and unrestricted data flows.
This negotiated outcome will help build consumer trust and ensure predictability and legal certainty for business, facilitating and enabling digital trade. It also reflects the EU's aspiration to be a global standard-setter for digital trade rules and cross-border data flows – an approach that put people and their rights at its core.
Digital trade is growing in size and importance. Over 60% of global GDP is now considered to be linked to digital transactions. In 2019, global online sales rose to over 24 trillion euros.
The EU is the world's largest exporter of services, and nearly half of those services are digital.
In 2022 more than half of the total trade in services between the EU and Singapore was digitally delivered so it's 55% amounting to 43 billion euros.
Digital trade rules foster consumer protection online, including rules on tackling spam, bring new opportunities for businesses, notably for SMEs to participate in global value chains.
Other key elements of this agreement include, for instance, rules on cross-border data flows, protecting privacy and personal data, electronic contracts, and online consumer trust.
At multilateral level, the EU very much looks forward to the finalisation of the e-commerce Joint Statement Initiative in which Singapore is playing a leading role, alongside with Australia and Japan. This will benefit all economies.
So, let me conclude by thanking Minister Fu for her good cooperation. And I want to congratulate our teams who have worked very intensively so that we managed to conclude this agreement in record time.
Thank you, and I now give the floor to the Minister Fu.
