China, Singapore sign free-trade pact

China signed a free-trade agreement with Singapore on Thursday, its seventh such pact, ahead of the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting in Beijing, AFP reported. Under the agreement, Singapore will abolish tariffs on all products imported from China beginning in 2009, while in return, China will do the same for 97.1% of goods imported from Singapore by 2012. China-Singapore trade climbed to a record US$62 billion last year. In April, New Zealand signed a free-trade agreement with China, making it the first developed economy to enter such a pact with China.