Catherwood LibraryILR School

Surrounded by cabinet members, senior advisors, and with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore looking on, President Bush today signed a free trade agreement with Singapore. This is the largest free trade agreement since NAFTA and the first President Bush has signed since Congress granted him trade promotion authority last summer. The signing was a display of the administration's policy of working with friends who supported the U.S. in the war with Iraq. Chile had been expected to be the first country to sign such an agreement, but following the administration's policy of punishing those nations that did not provide support, plans to finalize their agreement have stalled. Chile, a member of the UN Security Council, did not support the U.S. in its call for war with Iraq.