New EU-Singapore Agreement Builds on European Privacy Rules Approach
The EU and Singapore Wednesday announced a digital trade agreement (DTA) covering cross-border data flows. "In these uncertain times, the EU and Singapore are like-minded partners in upholding a rules-based trading order," they said.
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The DTA sets a high standard for digital trade rules between the parties and raises the ambition of such rules globally, the EC said. It "builds on the EU's approach to digital and data rules that puts people and their rights at the centre."
The agreement will boost consumer protection, facilitate trusted cross-border data flows and give legal certainty to businesses that want to engage in cross-border digital trade, and it will address unjustified barriers to digital trade, the parties said.
It will prevent protectionist practices and policies by barring unjustified data localization measures, thus helping to ensure trusted cross-border data flows, the EC said. As part of the negotiations, the EC said it ensured that EU privacy and data protection rules were respected.
It's now up to the EU and Singapore to ratify the agreement, the EC said. Formal ratification on the EU side requires the European Parliament's consent.