Singapore and 13 other small and medium-sized members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have established a partnership to support a rules-based multilateral trading system.
The initiative was launched as US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy changes threaten to depress global trade and hinder economic growth, especially for small and open economies.
The Future of Investment and Trade (FIT) Partnership was created during a virtual meeting on September 16. The other members are Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uruguay.
In a statement, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, who represented Singapore at the meeting, said, “The FIT Partnership reflects our countries’ collective purpose to support the rules-based multilateral trading system … We hope the FIT Partnership will be a catalyst for innovation that can be scaled up to the multilateral level to strengthen the WTO.”
Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said the initiative came as recent developments in global trade saw significant strain on the trading system, threatening to fragment markets and dampen global growth.
At the launch, which was also attended by WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the 14 partners said in their statement that the partnership “will champion open and fair trade so that all countries can benefit from increased economic security and job opportunities”.
The FIT Partnership plans to invite other countries that are interested in its objectives and willing to uphold its principles to join it.
Singapore will host the inaugural FIT Partnership Ministerial Meeting on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore scheduled for November 19 to 21, according to MTI.
Ministers have agreed to work towards endorsing concrete initiatives that will be announced at this meeting.
From a Christian viewpoint, protectionist trade measures such as tariff wars reflect a “closed mentality”, an attitude the Church has consistently warned against. Pope Francis has spoken strongly against isolationism in international relations. In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, he stressed: “No one can face life in isolation. We need a community that supports us, that helps us, and in which we help one another to keep looking ahead. For ‘we are all in the same boat,’ no one is saved alone, we can only be saved together.”
This vision directly challenges protectionist tendencies by highlighting the need for nations to collaborate, to uphold fair and open trade, and to ensure that economic progress benefits not only the powerful but also the poor and marginalized. In this light, the FIT Partnership is not simply an economic alliance, it is a moral affirmation of the principle that shared prosperity requires openness, fairness, and solidarity among nations.
(Christopher Khoo is a Singapore-based freelance journalist and educator).
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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