Mr Thomas Chua Kee Seng: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether public officers in charge of free trade agreements can be specialised in targeted industry sectors so that companies can directly approach them to get practical assistance for information and to resolve issues.

Written reply:

1.The Ministry of Trade and Industry works with our economic agencies such as EDB and IE Singapore to raise awareness of our free trade agreements (FTAs) and to ensure that our companies can benefit from our FTAs.  Trade negotiators from the ministry and IE Singapore’s FTA promotion and advisory team regularly engage Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) to help companies use FTAs.

2.To illustrate, IE Singapore had conducted industry-specific workshops on the benefits of FTAs with the Textiles and Apparel Fashion Federation (TAFF) for the garment manufacturing industry, and with the Singapore Food Manufacturers’ Association (SFMA) and Singapore Manufacturers Association (SMA) for the food & beverage manufacturing industry in 2016. This year, IE Singapore plans to conduct industry-specific workshops for companies in the services sector.  In addition, IE Singapore also conducts customized, one-to-one FTA consultations with companies. 

3.Over the last five years, around 3,500 companies have benefitted from workshops and seminars aimed at building greater awareness and knowledge of how FTAs can be utilized. An additional 2,000 companies have benefitted from one-to-one FTA consultations with IE Singapore. The beneficiaries of these efforts include local SMEs in diverse sectors that wish to capitalize on FTAs in penetrating export markets.

4.Company feedback is integral to trade agreements, which are intended to help our businesses access foreign markets. MTI and our economic agencies will continue to engage our companies prior to the start of new FTAs, during negotiations and when we review existing FTAs, to ensure that these agreements stay relevant to the needs of our businesses in the various industries.