U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement

• Text of the U.S-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
• Chapter 16: Intellectual Property Rights.

• Statements
  • July 23, 2003. Letter from Rep. Sherrod Brown to Members of Congress. Protect Technological Dissemination - Oppose the Singapore FTA.
  • July 23, 2003. USTR press release. Zoellick Statement Following House Approval of Chile and Singapore FTAs.
  • May 6, 2003. Whitehouse press release. Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Goh at the Signing of the US-Singapore FTA
  • May 6, 2003. Statement of the US-ASEAN Business Council on the Signing of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
  • April 29, 2003. Excerpts from speech by George Yeo, Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry.
  • March 7, 2003. USTR press release. USTR Publishes Singapore FTA Text Detailed Summaries of Chile FTA Published, Full Chile Text Expected at End of March.
  • March 5, 2003. CPTech Statement (based on summary of compulsory licensing provisions in the IFAC-3 report). THE PROPOSED U.S.-SINGAPORE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF COMPULSORY LICENSING WILL HARM US CONSUMERS AND US INDUSTRY.
  • February 28, 2003. Report of the Industry Functional Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights for Trade Policy Matters (IFAC-3). The U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) The Intellectual Property Provisions.

    The Singapore FTA imposes restrictions on a country's authority to grant compulsory licenses to situations that are needed to remedy anti-trust violations, national emergencies or other circumstances of extreme urgency, and for public non-commercial use. With respect to cases of public non-commercial use or in the case of a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, the FTA specifies that such unauthorized use is to be limited to use by the government or third parties authorized by the government; that the patent owner is provided with reasonable and entire compensation for such use and manufacture; and that Singapore shall not require the patent owner to transfer undisclosed information or technical "know how" related to the patented invention that had been subjected to the involuntary use authorization.

  • January 16, 2003. U.S.-Singapore FTA Business Council. U.S.-Singapore FTA Business Coalition Enthusiastically Endorses Trade Deal; Pledges to Work Hard for Congressional Approval.
  • December 13, 2002. Fact sheet from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Free Trade With Singapore America’s First Free Trade Agreement In Asia.
  • December 26, 2000. Public Citizen. Comments of Public Citizen, Inc., On Proposed U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

• Congressional Testimony

  • June 17, 2003. Senate Finance Committee hearings on the US-Chile and US-Singapore FTAs. Prepared testimony and transcrips can be found here. Below are excerpts of prepared testimony dealing specifically with intellectual property and access to healthcare from
    • Senator Max Baucus, ranking Democrat on the Committee
    • Peter Allgeier, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
  • June 10, 2003. Subcommittee on Trade of the House Ways and Means Committee hearings on the US-Chile and US-Singapore FTAs. Prepared testimony and transcrips can be found here. Below are excerpts of prepared testimony dealing specifically with intellectual property and access to healthcare from
    • Peter Allgeier, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
    • Gawain Kripke, Oxfam America
    • John Audley, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • May 8, 2003. Ralph F. Ives, III, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Asia, the Pacific and APEC. Statement before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

• News Stories

  • June 16, 2004. Chuang Peck Ming for the Singapore Business Times. IP gets fillip with 6 bills passed.
  • July 10, 2003. Bruce Odessey for the US Department of State Washington File. Congressional Committees Advance Chile, Singapore Trade Deals: House Democrats warn in advance over Central America labor issue.
  • July 10, 2003. Martin Crutsinger for the Associated Press. Lawmakers OK Chile, Singapore Free Trade.
  • May 8, 2003. South African Press Association. US-Singapore pact to spin a trade web.
  • May 7, 2003. Dawn Teo for Channel News Asia. Lobby groups to push for Congress' approval of US-Singapore FTA.
  • May 7, 2003. St. Petersburg Times. War allies win praise, favors from president.
  • May 6, 2003. Reuters. Bush, Goh sign US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
  • May 6, 2003. Elizabeth Becker for the New York Times. U.S. and Singapore Sign Free Trade Pact.
  • April 29, 2003. Paul Blustein for the Washington Post. Trade Accords Become a U.S. Foreign Policy Tool.
  • March 7, 2003. Associated Press. Proposed Singapore Trade Text Released.