The China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) Further Upgrade Protocol entered into force on Dec. 31, 2024, China's Ministry of Commerce said.
In alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules, the protocol will open the services trade and investment markets between China and Singapore to a greater extent, according to a statement from the commerce ministry.
In terms of market access, both parties have made commitments to opening their services and investment markets based on a negative list model, marking China's first completion of free trade agreement upgrade negotiations using this model, the ministry said.
Regarding regulations, both sides have established high-standard institutional arrangements in areas such as services trade, investment and telecommunication, while also expanding cooperation in emerging fields like the digital economy, it said.
Negotiations on the CSFTA Further Upgrade Protocol began in 2020, and the protocol was signed in December 2023.
The China-Singapore FTA was initially signed in Oct. 23 2008, followed by protocols to revise and upgrade in July 2011 and Nov. 2018, respectively.
China-Singapore FTA upgrade protocol enters into force
China's steel industry has achieved intensive breakthroughs in high-end precision materials since the beginning of this year, with a batch of advanced specialty steels empowering frontier industries including electronics, new energy and high-end equipment.
In the mobile communication era of 4G, the thickness required for an ultra-thin low-carbon steel foil is 0.12 mm to enable convenient and speedy signal transmission.
Such a demanding requirement is tightened to a mere 0.10 mm in today's 5G new era, which means more complicated techniques for its manufacturers.
For a long time, the rolling methods relied heavily on foreign enterprises. However, Shougang Group teamed up with the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) in 2013 to conduct scientific research and development on the continuous rolling process of "5G steel," a nickname of the ultra-thin low-carbon steel foil.
The "5G steel" that independently developed by China - as thin as 0.07 mm - has entered mass production and been widely used for 5G base station signal receivers, signal transmission filters, and integrated circuit boards, and new energy battery connection pieces.
"Although it's thin, it has excellent toughness and feels like paper, and we can easily bend it and repeatedly fold it," said Hu Na, an engineer at Shougang Jingtang Steel United Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. She folded the steel into a classic "paper plane" to show its flexibility.
This year, China has been using specialty steels to empower the development of new quality productive forces.
For instance, in industrial sector, China has continued to push performance limits of silicon steel -- an iron-silicon alloy used primarily in electrical applications due to its good magnetic properties, with 0.1-millimeter-grade non-oriented electrical steel achieving global top-tier status in electrical steel iron loss indicators.
The material now is widely used in drive motors for new energy vehicles and joint motors for humanoid robots.
The breakthroughs came as China's steel industry continues to shift toward higher value-added products, with the manufacturing sector's share of steel consumption surpassing that of the construction sector for the first time in 2025.
China makes intensive breakthroughs in high-end steel products in 2026
