On 14 November 2000, in Singapore, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Prime Minister Helen Clark signed the Agreement between New Zealand and Singapore on a Closer Economic Partnership. Two copies, in English. It is not Closer Economic Relations with Australia, not the P4 of 2005 and not the upgrading Protocol of 17 May 2019.

Article 1: fair and equitable treatment and protection for bilateral investments; a framework of transparent rules for trade and investment; efficiency and competitiveness; support for the WTO and for APEC’s Bogor goals (free and open trade and investment by 2010 at the latest for industrialised economies); liberalisation of bilateral trade in goods and services. Article 3: open and competitive markets, the APEC Principles to Enhance Competition and Regulatory Reform; competition authorities adequately resourced, non-discriminatory enforcement, exchange of information.

Article 4: each Party shall eliminate all tariffs on goods originating in the other as of the date of entry into force, and those tariffs shall remain free. Article 5: origin — goods wholly produced or obtained, or, if partly manufactured, the last process of manufacture in that Party and expenditure of not less than 40 per cent of the factory or works cost on materials and/or costs incurred in one or both Parties; goods which entered the commerce of Australia only for unloading and reloading remain originating. Article 7: a prohibition of export subsidies on all goods including agricultural products. Article 8: neither Party shall take safeguard measures against goods originating in the other. Article 9: a de minimis dumping margin of 5 per cent (instead of the WTO 2 per cent); a negligible volume of 5 per cent (instead of 3 per cent); anti-dumping review or termination after three years (instead of five).

Part 5: services, with an initial schedule of commitments and a review at least every two years toward the APEC 2010 objective; the first review shall include telecommunications, postal services, credit reporting and disaster insurance. Part 6: investment, national treatment and MFN, expropriation and ICSID. Government procurement above SDR 50,000. Article 68: ministers in charge of trade negotiations shall meet within a year, then biennially. Article 75: Singapore may adopt measures to prevent or relieve a critical shortage of imports deemed essential, not as arbitrary discrimination. Article 78: the Agreement shall not apply to any taxation measure.

Article 79: open to accession or association, on terms to be agreed, by any WTO Member, other State or separate customs territory. Article 84: ratification by an exchange of Notes; entry into force on the date specified therein; termination on 180 days’ written notice. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade records 1 January 2001. The United Nations Treaty Series: volume 2203, No. 39105. The 2019 Protocol is not treated here.

The Istana, Singapore. The presidential palace in the city of signature, not the confirmed signing hall. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

For context: Agreement between New Zealand and Singapore on a Closer Economic Partnership. The text: CEP text, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.