As Singapore PM Visits China, No Sign US Pressure Constrains Ties

Wong also met with Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at“Summer Davos,” where they talked about cooperation in areas including renewable energy and food security.“This,” he wrote on X,“builds on the Vietnam-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) launched earlier this year.” Singapore, said Wong,“is doing something like more than 20 industrial parks in Vietnam.”

This year's event, officially the 16^th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions, attracted about 1,800 participants from around the world, this time under the theme“Entrepreneurship for a New Era.” It was the eighth time that the event was held in Tianjin .

Wong spoke at length with WEF President Brende about the need to reform and preserve the world economic order by means of a “flexible multilateralism” that stops“the jungle growing back” under the“rule of the strong.”

As an example, he said that

Singapore, he said, built trade and investment links with its nearest neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, then Vietnam and other members of ASEAN, and now,

As President Trump's trade war takes its toll, such efforts have acquired a new urgency. The June Survey of Professional Forecasters (economists and analysts who closely monitor the Singapore economy) conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore showed a reduction in this year's projected economic growth to 1.7% from the 2.6% projected in March – an abrupt slowdown from the 4.4% GDP growth recorded in 2024.

Tensions over trade and other geopolitical matters were rated as the greatest downside risk to the Singaporean economy, followed by rising interest rates and global economic slowdown. Respondents to the survey also signaled concern over tighter financial conditions.

Manufacturing has taken a particularly large hit. Changes in median forecasts of 2025 macroeconomic indicators from the March to the June survey include: manufacturing +2.9% to -0.3%, non-oil domestic exports +2.8% to +1.0%, finance & insurance +4.0% to +3.3%, construction +3.4% to +3.3%, wholesale & retail trade +2.7% to +2.2%, accommodation & food services +2.0% to +1.5%, and private consumption: +3.5% to +3.1%. The construction sector is holding up with support from the Changi Airport Terminal 5 and other longer-term projects.

In late May, DBS Bank senior economist Chua Han Teng wrote that“Continued elevated global trade policy uncertainties are likely to dampen business confidence, which have already turned down.”

US President Trump's so-called“reciprocal” tariff on Singapore is only 10% (the same as the current baseline tariff), but those that might be applied to the rest of Asia are considerably higher: 46% on Vietnam, 36% on Thailand, 32% on Indonesia, 32% on Taiwan, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan, etc. Then there is the 25% tariff on autos, and proposed tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and other products that are now under consideration, plus multiple tariffs on China that currently add up to effective rates of more than 30% on most Chinese goods.

This is all negative for Singapore, which lives on trade and investment. The China and ASEAN are Singapore's largest trade partners, each accounting for about a quarter of its imports and exports, US is Singapore's largest foreign investor, and Singapore is China's largest foreign investor .

The“reciprocal” tariffs have been“paused” until July 9, but the White House now says that that date is “not critical,” leaving hope for negotiated reductions, but also, given Trump's penchant for changing his mind, continued uncertainty.

In a ministerial statement on US tariffs and their implications issued on April 8, Wong wrote that,“In Singapore's case, we have an FTA with America. We impose zero tariffs on US imports, and we actually run a trade deficit with the US – meaning we buy more from them than they do from us.”

Therefore,“If the tariffs were truly reciprocal, and if they were meant to target only those with trade surpluses, then the tariff for Singapore should be zero.”

“But still we are being subjected to the 10% tariff. We are very disappointed by the US move, especially considering the deep and longstanding friendship between our two countries. These are not actions one does to a friend.”

Nevertheless, at Summer Davos Wong said:

“I know everyone monitors and tracks what we say and what we do very closely,” he said,“trying to parse every hidden meaning behind every word, behind every action, whether we are moving closer to one or the other. But that's not how we look at things.”

In fact, there is no sign whatsover that American government pressure is constraining relations between Singapore and China. On the contrary, the two Asian countries have appropriated the terms rules-based global order, free trade and multilateralism, which are no longer associated with the US. And they are working together on a wide range of practical activities that seem totally alien to the Trump Administration's view of what is or what it would like to be happening in Asia.

Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667

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