Singapore to Lift Chewing Gum Ban on Doctors' Orders
The chewing gum question had been a sticking point during two years of intense negotiations to seal a landmark Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
Through long hours of wrangling over banking rights, services, tariffs and labor laws, the ubiquitous chewing gum issue left a bad taste in the mouths of U.S. delegates.
But Singapore chief negotiator Tommy Koh was reported Friday as saying they eventually found an "ingenious" solution by making it a medical issue.
Only "sugarless gum prescribed by doctors and dentists as having therapeutic and medicinal benefits will be sold in pharmacies", Koh told reporters.
"It was a difficult compromise, but in interests of resolving all outstanding issues in the spirit of goodwill that exists between the two delegations, we were extremely ingenious," he quipped.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick described the resolution as allowing U.S. gum manufacturers a "modest entry point that is controlled in a certain fashion".
But after a 10-year ban, gum will not become immediately available as the FTA is unlikely to take effect until 2004.
The import, manufacture and sale of chewing gum has been banned in the so-called nanny state since 1992, and the penalty for smuggling gum into the country is a year in jail and a 10,000 Singapore dollar (5,500 U.S.) fine.
Chewing gum was originally banned because authorities considered it a public nuisance and difficult to clean up.
The last straw was when pranksters found that gum could be used to jam train doors and disrupt the service.
However, health authorities announced last year, when the FTA negotiations were well under way, that it was reviewing the blanket ban, with the possibility of a reprieve for nicotine gum to help smokers kick the habit.
The health sciences authority said its review was strictly limited to "chewing gum containing a therapeutic agent and approved for therapeutic use".