Fortunately, in the EU-Singapore FTA ruling, the Court took a relatively narrow perspective.  It said that the EU had the authority (or “competence”) to negotiate and approve trade agreements on all topics except a very limited slice of investment (basically portfolio investment) and investor protection.  These two issues will need to be approved by the member states.  While this approval is being sought for EU-Singapore, nearly all of the FTA can begin.  The agreement always had imagined a lengthy approval process, so negotiators planned for a provisional entry into force clause that can now be activated for all aspects of the agreement that fall under EU competence.  In practice, this means that 95% or more of the deal will start. Again—for firms, this means the entire EU-Singapore FTA agreement except for commitments on portfolio investment promises and the elements of Chapter 9 on investment called the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) will be starting shortly.