BRUSSELS, July 25 — The European Commission and Singapore wrapped up negotiations on a new digital trade agreement on Thursday, reported the German News Agency (dpa).
"This agreement raises the ambition of digital trade rules globally, including on the protection of source code and unrestricted data flows," said Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis during a press conference.
The European Union-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement (EUSDTA) still needs to be ratified by the European Parliament and EU countries' ministers; it does not need to be ratified by EU countries' national parliaments.
The agreement follows a broader EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement that has been in force since 2019.
"The EUSDTA will reduce costs and enhance efficiency for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, by enabling interoperable digital trade systems for e-payments and paperless transactions such as e-bills of ladings and e-invoices," said Singapore's minister in charge of trade Grace Fu.
She added, "It will promote greater services trade between the EU and Singapore by enabling trusted trade data flows in all sectors."
A key component of the deal is reducing obstacles to data transfers between the EU and Singapore.
However, Dombrovskis said the agreement does not "interact" with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which imposes strict limitations on transfers of personal data outside the EU.
The GDPR allows the commission to declare a country's application of data protection rules "adequate" for unrestricted transfers of personal data to occur, but the EU executive has not issued a decision on this concerning Singapore.
— Bernama
