Singapore agencies engaging US counterparts over tariffs (2025)

WASHINGTON – Singapore agencies are in discussions with the Trump administration over the 10 per cent tariff imposed by the United States on its oldest free trade partner in Asia.

“We are currently engaging our US counterparts to further clarify the full scope and application of its tariffs,” Enterprise Singapore said in an April 14 update to its “Frequently Asked Questions” listed under a webpage on the 2004 US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA).

The 10 per cent tariff on imports from Singapore came into effect on April 5.

Enterprise Singapore, which is under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is charged with helping Singaporean businesses compete globally and supporting the city-state’s position as a major international business and trading hub.

In a separate statement, the Republic’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) also said that engagement with the US is ongoing.

The matter came up during an introductory phone call between MFA Permanent Secretary Albert Chua and US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on April 8, during which they had talks about the bilateral relationship, particularly in the economic and defence domains.

“Permanent Secretary Chua and Deputy Secretary Landau discussed the recently announced tariffs by the US and agreed that both sides would continue the ongoing engagement on this issue,” said an MFA spokesperson in response to a query from The Straits Times.

A Fox Business report on April 15 named Singapore among scores of nations which are trying to negotiate deals after President Donald Trump stoked concerns across the world and roiled global stock markets with his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement of sweeping tariffs.

In media interviews over the past few days, US officials have variously cited Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Australia and the European Union as among 75 economies which have approached the White House.

In Asean, apart from Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are reportedly in talks.

As a free trade partner, Singapore can rightfully ask for exemption from the unilateral imposition of tariffs that violate the letter and spirit of the USSFTA, US-based analysts and former diplomats have said.

Unlike many other trading partners, the US does not run a trade deficit with Singapore. In fact, the US goods trade surplus with Singapore was US$2.8 billion (S$3.7 billion) in 2024 – an 84.8 per cent increase over 2023’s US$1.3 billion.

Mr Trump’s April 2 announcement included a 10 per cent across-the-board tariff on all nations, including FTA partners such as Singapore.

In addition, he imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs of between 11 per cent and 50 per cent on imports from the more than 90 nations that run trade surpluses with the US. Asian nations found themselves facing some of the highest tariffs, with Cambodia at 49 per cent and Vietnam at 46 per cent.

In a stunning reversal a week later, Mr Trump announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs while his officials thrash out “tailor-made” deals country by country.

What was not paused is the levy of 145 per cent on all imports from China, with the exception of smartphones and other electronics. To these, Beijing responded with its own 125 per cent tariffs on American products coming into China.

In the dash to the negotiating deadline for the other nations in early July, the message from the Trump administration was that the first movers will get the best deals.

“We have had more than 15 deals, pieces of paper, put on the table… proposals that are actively being considered,” Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an April 15 session with reporters.

She did not say which nations had made the offers but said the deals should be happening “very soon”.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is prioritising Britain, Australia, South Korea, India and Japan for the first few deals, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 14, quoting unnamed sources. Other media have named Vietnam as a possibility.

“As we have said consistently, more than 75 countries have reached out,” Ms Leavitt said during her media briefing.

“So there’s a lot of work to do. We very much understand that, but we also believe that we can announce some deals very soon.”

But China, she added, was not among nations negotiating a new deal.

“The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them,” she said.

“There’s no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger and China wants what we have, what every country wants… the American consumer. Or to put it another way, they need our money,” she said.

Apart from Mr Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, trade adviser Peter Navarro, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are officials shepherding the talks.

The fast-paced negotiations come as Chinese President Xi Jinping continues with his outreach to South-east Asian nations during his ongoing tour.

And China is hitting back. A Bloomberg report that the Chinese government has told the country’s airlines to stop accepting deliveries of Boeing jets and stop buying airline parts and other components from US companies came in for sharp criticism by Trump officials.

Boeing, which is among the largest US exporting companies, is scheduled to ship about 10 737 Max aircraft to Chinese carriers.

“They just reneged on the big Boeing deal,” Mr Trump commented on Truth Social in a post in which he pledged to defend American farmers from any moves by China to bar imports of commodities such as corn and soya bean.

Also on April 15, the US Commerce Department moved to launch investigations into how imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductor chips, equipment to make them and products that contain them affect national security.

After a period of three weeks during which public comment will be sought, a new set of tariffs are likely to follow, with rates that were previously talked about at as being at 25 per cent.

Singapore, which exports both chips and medicines to the US, would be impacted by these tariffs along with many other nations.

More than 70 per cent of the materials, or active pharmaceutical ingredients, used to make medicines in the US are produced in India, the EU and China as well as other nations. The US consumes about 45 per cent of pharmaceuticals made worldwide, more than any other country.

The US also is a major producer of semiconductors, but only in some areas. It relies heavily on imports from Taiwan and South Korea for advanced chips.

• Bhagyashree Garekar is The Straits Times’ US bureau chief. Her previous key roles were as the newspaper’s foreign editor (2020-2023) and as its US correspondent during the Bush and Obama administrations.

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