Singapore's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their workers could lose out if free trade agreements (FTAs) are reviewed as the opposition suggests, said Communications and Information Minister S. Iswaran yesterday.

Urging the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) to be frank about the trade-offs in its proposals, he said every FTA has a carefully balanced set of pros and cons, and other countries involved would look out for their interest if any reviews are made.

"The other countries are not just going to give you a free pass," he told reporters after a walkabout in Boon Lay in West Coast GRC, where the People's Action Party team he leads faces a challenge from the PSP at the July 10 election.

Mr Iswaran said local SMEs benefit from access to large markets such as China and Asean. And if other countries cut back on benefits for Singapore, then these businesses would lose out, and the people they employ would be affected.

"So I think the voters of West Coast GRC and Singaporeans deserve to know, what are you planning to give up when you say you're going to review all of these. You can't make broad statements then leave it to the imagination of the population," he said, criticising the PSP's manifesto as lacking in detail.

In response, PSP secretary-general Tan Cheng Bock, who is leading his party's team in West Coast GRC, told reporters PSP's manifesto was crafted in the interest of Singaporeans. "If they think we have a lousy manifesto, it's not up to him to say. It's for the people to decide."

PSP assistant secretary-general Leong Mun Wai, who is in Dr Tan's West Coast team, said FTAs are supposed to be for mutual benefit.

He said: "So if the Government is transparent with all the information and data, and we can prove and know that the trade agreements are not in our interest, then it is our sovereign right to renegotiate those agreements." He added that PSP will not be adopting a radical approach in the policies it advocates.