{"id":37759,"date":"2026-03-20T07:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=37759"},"modified":"2026-03-20T07:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:05:37","slug":"wto-ministerial-conference-14-a-tipping-point-for-singapores-digital-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=37759","title":{"rendered":"WTO Ministerial Conference 14: A tipping point for Singapore&#8217;s digital economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>The business community is looking for concrete progress on two digital trade issues \u2013 to keep innovation thriving<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"article-body-container\">\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">IN RECENT weeks, a series of abrupt tariff moves has pushed global trade policy onto the front pages. After a US court ruling in February, the White House swiftly imposed a 10 per cent global import surcharge the next day, under Section 122 of the Trade Act 1974.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">And on Mar 12, <a class=\"text-verticals-btblue underline\" data-testid=\"article-annotation-link-component\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/international\/global\/china-singapore-among-economies-under-us-trade-probe-mti-disputes-us-trade-surplus-claim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Singapore was named a country for review<\/a> under Section 301 for alleged excess manufacturing capacity and use of forced labour. These moves are attempts by the White House to keep tariffs on legally after Section 122 expires in July 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-pre-wrap break-words mb-4 md:mb-6\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-component\">Simultaneously, the World Trade Organization (WTO) \u2013 the traditional referee of global trade \u2013 is struggling to enforce the rules. Its top court has been paralysed for years, so appeals hang in the void. With no firm referee, some larger countries are setting their own trade rules and retaliatory measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"article-btg-newsletter-component\" data-section-name=\"newsletter\" data-section-label=\"decoding asia 2\" class=\"track-impression border-t border-gray-175 py-3\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-lucida text-xl font-medium italic leading-normal -tracking-5% text-gray-850\">Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. <span class=\"inline border-none p-0 font-lucida text-inherit text-xl font-medium italic leading-normal !-tracking-5% text-verticals-btblue !underline outline-none\">Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter.<\/span> Delivered to your inbox. Free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/opinion-features\/wto-ministerial-conference-14-tipping-point-singapores-digital-economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The business community is looking for concrete progress on two digital trade issues \u2013 to keep innovation thriving IN RECENT weeks, a series of abrupt&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}