Activities for intermediate and advanced adult students. You will read about news and current affairs. Politics and Economy. Sport, Music and Literature. And of course all aspect of language.
Saturday 26 December 2020
Saturday 19 December 2020
Thursday 17 December 2020
News
The UK and Singapore have signed a free trade agreement, delivering positive news for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as the country remains locked in negotiations with the EU. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss signed the agreement with her Singapore counterpart Chan Chun Sing in the city-state last week. The new deal covers more than £17billon of trade in goods and services and largely replicates the existing EU-Singapore FTA.
Under the current arrangement, 84 percent of tariffs that apply to Singapore exports to the UK are exempted, with the balance set to be struck off by November 2024.
Ms Truss said the agreement was “part of a much wider strategic investment for the UK, taking us a step closer to joining Singapore” in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a regional trade deal.
She added: "Joining the CPTPP would boost the UK's “economic security, diversify supply chains and strengthen the global consensus for rules based free trade."
The CPTPP is a high-quality free trade agreement which binds together Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, Malaysia, Peru, Chile and Brunei.
"The EU has agreements with quite a lot of countries in the CPTPP, but not all of them.
"It would make it much more difficult for the EU to conclude agreements with countries like Australia for instance, if Britain and the US were to join."
"That there are a few places where CPTPP has rules that members accept. Digital trade is one of those areas."