SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE

Singapore, July 24, 2026. The city-state did not just observe the announcement from the US; it had already directly lodged its protest with the US Secretary of State. Two days before the new tariffs took effect, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told Marco Rubio, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in Manila, that the US had "no technical or economic basis" for taxing Singapore, according to Channel News Asia. Singapore is nonetheless among the 60 economies targeted by the new 10 to 12.5% tariffs announced Thursday by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the grounds that these countries have not done enough to ban the importation of goods linked to forced labor, along with Australia, China, Japan, India, and the European Union.

Singapore's argument remained uncompromising: "I emphasized quite categorically that the US has a surplus, a trade surplus with us. In fact, it continues to grow," Balakrishnan said. He nonetheless acknowledged the political logic behind the move: "The US administration, for its own domestic policy reasons, needs to raise tariff revenue." Singapore also claims to have a rigorous framework to combat forced labor in its supply chains, making the justification cited by the US all the less acceptable.

Technically, these new tariffs, based on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, replace a global 10% tariff imposed under Section 122 after the Supreme Court invalidated part of Donald Trump's tariff measures in February. Countries that have implemented import bans related to forced labor, such as Canada, the EU, or the UK, will be subject to the 10% floor rate, while China, Japan, and Singapore will face 12.5%. For Singapore, whose trade partnership with the US is historically based on a bilateral free trade agreement, this classification is seen as disproportionate to the actual trade figures.