US-Singapore Trade at All Time High

Singapore’s trade with the U.S. in 2013 will probably exceed $50 billion for a third year after the nation attracted the most investment from American companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

“U.S.-Singapore relations are generally at an all-time high,” U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman said in a Bloomberg Television interview. He gave the trade target for the two countries, saying “Southeast Asia has become increasingly important to American multi-national corporations as they continue to increase their participation in the global economy.”

U.S. foreign direct investment into Singapore rose 17 percent to $138.6 billion in 2012, higher than to Japan and Australia, according to data from the Department of Commerce. Singapore was the first Asian nation to sign a free-trade agreement with the U.S. in 2003.

Ranked by the World Bank as the easiest place to do business seven years in a row, Singapore offered incentives and tax cuts to spur investment, luring U.S. companies from Google Inc. to Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to set up their regional operations on the island. Singapore’s shipments to the U.S., one of its top export destinations, rose for the first time in three months in July as a recovery in the world’s biggest economy gains traction.

Adelman will end his term next month and will be replaced by Kirk Wager, a Miami lawyer.

Bloomberg

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