EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement: we must do better to protect consumers, workers, and people at large

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EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement: we must do better to protect consumers, workers, and people at large

Published on 07.04.2025

About this publication

As discussions on the EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement (DTA) continue, BEUC, ETUC, and EDRi shed a light on the potential risks the agreement poses to consumer rights, workers’ protections, and broader fundamental rights.

While it is clear the EU’s objective is to foster global trade partnerships, we want to stress the importance of designing such new deals with people’s interests at their core.

The current text of the DTA introduces loopholes, particularly regarding access to source code and data flows, that could undermine privacy, algorithmic transparency, and regulatory oversight. Furthermore, this could hinder the enforcement of digital laws such as the AI Act. This is not merely a theoretical concern: the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has echoed similar warnings in its recent opinion.

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Joint Statement BEUC, EDRi, ETUC - EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement