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Brussels - The European Union and Singapore have completed their negotiations on a free trade agreement, the first such deal between the bloc and a South-East Asian country.
"The deal is a gateway to the important region in Asia and it can help to boost economic growth, investment and job creation in the EU," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said Friday.
"It will help open the door for Europe to the Asean market with 600 million consumers," he said, referring to the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
The EU is also negotiating free trade deals with Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. It ultimately hopes to have a single agreement with the entire 10-country Asean.
The Singapore agreement will send a "positive signal" to other Asean countries, De Gucht said, and that he expects the deal with Vietnam to be concluded in spring 2015.
Singapore is the EU's fifth-largest trading partner in Asia, with bilateral trade reaching €46.7bn in 2013, according to the European Commission.
The EU was Singapore's third-largest trading partner that year.
The last item the two sides negotiated was a chapter on investment protection, which the EU's executive said would commit the bloc and Singapore to ensure "a stable and fair regime for foreign investors."
The chapter now has to undergo legal checks before the two sides can sign and ratify the free trade deal.
The issue of investment protection has been controversial in the EU recently because of a similar clause in a free trade agreement being negotiated with the United States. Critics worry that in that deal the clause could be abused by corporations to block undesirable regulation.
De Gucht defended the inclusion of investment protection clauses in the EU's free trade deals, saying they are desired by most member states in the bloc.
He said it would be "a disaster" for the EU's negotiating position if such clauses were to be removed.
