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SINGAPORE: Singapore is taking a cautious approach to any concessions that could secure a lower tariff from the United States, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong saying that the government must first assess the significant costs and wider trade implications of measures sought by Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n In a written reply to questions from members of parliament on whether Singapore could negotiate a lower tariff, Mr Gan, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade), said that Singapore would continue engaging the US Trade Representative (USTR), but he stressed that any response must be “considered carefully”.<\/span><\/p>\n The US imposed tariffs of between 10 per cent and 12.5 per cent on <\/span>60 economies covered by its forced labour investigation<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Singapore was hit with <\/span>the highest rate<\/span> because it does not have a law prohibiting imports produced with forced labour, or have an Agreement of Reciprocal Trade with the US committing it to introduce one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n MP Yip Hong Weng (PAP-Yio Chu Kang) had asked Mr Gan about the impact of the tariff, and whether the government would introduce more measures to help affected exporters.<\/p>\n Mr Gan said that <\/span>about one-third of Singapore’s domestic exports to the US, worth around S$9.5 billion (US$7.4 billion) yearly, are affected by the new tariff. These include optical instruments and chemical products.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the tariff excludes energy and energy products, as well as certain electronics and aerospace products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Products already subject to separate US tariffs or investigations, such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, are also excluded.<\/span><\/p>\n Compared to an earlier US 10 per cent tariff, which expired last month, the new measure raises Singapore’s overall effective tariff rate by an estimated 0.7 percentage point, he added.<\/p>\n “Throughout the investigation, Singapore engaged the USTR actively at both the political and official levels, including during my visit to Washington DC in April this year,” Mr Gan said.<\/span><\/p>\n “We made clear that there is no evidence that Singapore is involved in the trade of goods associated with forced labour,” he added, citing data from the US Department of Labour and Customs and Border Protection.<\/span><\/p>\n “We emphasised that our policies do not burden US commerce, as reflected in the longstanding and substantial trade surplus the US continues to enjoy with Singapore.”<\/p>\n The USTR website stated that the US goods trade surplus with Singapore was US$3.6 billion in 2025. It did not state the country’s services trade balance with Singapore for that year, but said it amounted to a US$25.1 billion surplus in 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Gan said that the government will continue to engage the USTR constructively, but it also has to consider carefully what steps, if any, Singapore should take in response.<\/span><\/p>\n As a major trading hub, with goods and services trade amounting to around S$2.5 trillion yearly \u2013 including S$1.4 trillion in goods \u2013 <\/span>any import prohibition Singapore imposes would have significant implications, Mr Gan cautioned.<\/p>\n “Businesses could face substantial compliance costs arising from supply-chain due diligence, documentation and investigations, particularly where production takes place outside Singapore and beyond our jurisdiction,” he said.<\/p>\n “Such measures could also affect our broader trade relationship with other partners.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE: Singapore is taking a cautious approach to any concessions that could secure a lower tariff from the United States, with Deputy Prime Minister Gan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--CQRJSu3Q--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/gan_kim_yong_parliament.jpg?itok=vqecWNe1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,4388,385,22,37,27761,2853,16104,4389],"class_list":["post-74515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-gan","tag-kim","tag-seeking","tag-singapore","tag-tariff","tag-tradeoffs","tag-weigh","tag-wider","tag-yong","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74515","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=74515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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