The wider bargain for Singapore behind a lower US tariff
Singapore should address Washington’s forced-labour concern directly, but a modest tariff reduction would not by itself justify a wider economic-security agreement.
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MTI estimates that the new tariff will apply to about one-third of Singapore’s domestically produced exports to the US.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Ramkishen S. Rajan
Effective July 24, Washington imposed new tariffs tied to countries’ policies on imports made with forced labour, placing Singapore in the higher tier at 12.5 per cent rather than the 10 per cent rate.
Seventeen of the 60 economies investigated received the lower rate, which applied to economies that had banned such imports outright, imposed narrower controls on specified goods, or committed through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) to introduce and enforce a ban.
