On 10 December 2020, at Singapore, the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Singapore was signed. Signatories, in the text laid before the UK Parliament as Singapore No. 1 (2020), CP 356: Elizabeth Truss and Chan Chun Sing. Article 9(7): English is the sole authentic text. The preamble: the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Singapore, done at Brussels on 19 October 2018, will not apply to the United Kingdom at the end of the transitional period; the rights and obligations between them as provided for by that FTA should continue to apply.

Article 1(1): the provisions of the EU–Singapore FTA, including all Annexes, Appendices, Joint Declarations, Protocols and Understandings in effect immediately before they cease to apply to the United Kingdom, are incorporated and shall apply, mutatis mutandis, subject to this Instrument. Article 1(3): the following, among others, are not incorporated: Article 16.5 (Amendments), Article 16.13 (Entry into Force), Article 16.19 (Future Accessions to the Union), Article 16.21 (Authentic Texts) and paragraph 2 of Article 16.20 (Territorial Application). Article 2(1)(b): “the Incorporated Agreement” means the EU–Singapore FTA as so modified.

Article 2(4): in the event of an inconsistency with the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to the Withdrawal Agreement, signed in London and Brussels on 24 January 2020, this Agreement shall not prevent a Party from taking a particular measure not consistent with the obligations under this Agreement and relating to that inconsistency, provided the measure is not applied as arbitrary or unjustified discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade; notification and consultations follow. Article 4: references to the euro in the Incorporated Agreement continue to be read as such. Article 5: this Agreement shall apply, in respect of the United Kingdom, to the extent that and under the conditions which the EU–Singapore FTA applied immediately before it ceased to apply, to the United Kingdom and to Gibraltar, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Article 6: unless this Agreement provides otherwise, a reference to a time period commencing on or from the entry into force of this Agreement means a time period commencing on or from the entry into force of the EU–Singapore FTA. Article 7: the Trade Committee shall ensure that this Agreement operates properly; committee decisions under the EU–Singapore FTA in effect immediately before it ceased to apply are deemed adopted mutatis mutandis; the first meeting, within one year, shall review the institutional structure. Article 8: amendments by written notification, in force on the first day of the second month following the later notification, or by committee decision where the Incorporated Agreement so provides.

Article 9(1): this Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the later of the Parties’ written notifications that they have completed their respective legal requirements and procedures, or on another date agreed after that exchange. Article 9(2): pending entry into force, provisional application on the date on which the EU–Singapore FTA ceases to apply to the United Kingdom, provided the Parties have exchanged notifications for provisional application. Entry into force: 11 February 2021. The Joint Declaration on Investment Review: negotiations on investment-protection commitments within two years of entry into force, with an endeavour to conclude within four years. The later Digital Economy Agreement is not this instrument.

Parliament House, Singapore, the city of signature, not the signing room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: Singapore–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement. The text: Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Singapore (CP 356).