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The Pacific Alliance, ASEAN and the Evolving Landscape of Cross-Pacific Economic Relations
The Asia-Pacific has become a key region for global trade, connectivity, digital transformation, supply chain resilience, and sustainable development. Within this wider regional landscape, Singapore and the Pacific Alliance occupy complementary positions as outward-looking, trade-oriented actors committed to open markets, rules-based economic cooperation, and deeper cross-regional connectivity.
The Pacific Alliance, comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, is one of Latin America’s most dynamic regional integration mechanisms. A defining characteristic of the Alliance is its strong engagement with the Asia-Pacific. As all four member countries are located along the Pacific coast, the region has become an important focus for expanding trade, diversifying economic partnerships, and strengthening strategic links beyond Latin America.
Singapore has emerged as an important partner for the Pacific Alliance. As a leading trade, financial, logistics, and digital economy hub in Southeast Asia, Singapore offers Pacific Alliance countries a valuable gateway to ASEAN and the wider Asian market. At the same time, the Pacific Alliance provides Singapore with a platform to deepen its engagement with Latin America and strengthen cooperation across the Pacific.
Singapore–Pacific Alliance relations have developed steadily over the past decade. After becoming an Observer State in 2014, Singapore deepened its engagement with the bloc and later pursued closer institutional ties. This process led to the signing of the Pacific Alliance–Singapore Free Trade Agreement on 26 January 2022, which entered into force on 3 May 2025. Singapore’s status as an Associate State of the Pacific Alliance, together with the entry into force of the agreement for Singapore, Chile, and Peru, marks an important milestone in the relationship.
The agreement creates new opportunities for cooperation in trade, investment, services, the digital economy, logistics, infrastructure, tourism, innovation, sustainability, and supply chain resilience. It also reinforces Singapore’s potential role as a bridge between Southeast Asia and Latin America, while offering Pacific Alliance countries a stronger entry point into ASEAN-led networks and wider Asia-Pacific supply chains.
Despite this progress, Singapore–Pacific Alliance relations remain relatively underexplored in policy discussions. Greater attention is needed on how both sides can make better use of existing agreements, expand business and institutional linkages, and identify practical areas for future cooperation.
This half-day seminar will bring together experts from Singapore, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, and the wider Asia-Pacific region to discuss the current state of Singapore–Pacific Alliance relations, the significance of the free trade agreement, and future cooperation in trade, investment, digital transformation, supply chain resilience, sustainability, and connectivity.
Organised in cooperation with the APEC Secretariat, the seminar will situate the discussion within the broader framework of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation and highlight Singapore’s role as a bridge between Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Register here: bit.ly/CrossPacificEconomicRelations
