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My fellow Singaporeans, I've said before that the world is changing in ways that will | Lawrence Wong | |
disadvantage small open economies like Singapore. Some had previously questioned this assessment, | Lawrence Wong | |
but the recent liberation day announcement by the US leaves no room for doubt. | Lawrence Wong | |
It marks a seismic change in the global order. The era of rules-based globalisation and | Lawrence Wong | |
free trade is over. We are entering a new phase, one that is more arbitrary, protectionist, | Lawrence Wong | |
and dangerous. For decades, the US was the bedrock for the free market economies of the world. | Lawrence Wong | |
It championed free trade and led efforts to build a multilateral trading system, | Lawrence Wong | |
anchored by clear rules and norms, where countries could achieve win-win benefits through trade. | Lawrence Wong | |
This WTO system brought unprecedented stability and prosperity to the world, | Lawrence Wong | |
and to the US itself to be clear the system is not perfect. Singapore and many others have long | Lawrence Wong | |
called for reform to update the rules and to make the system better. But what the US is doing now | Lawrence Wong | |
is not reform. It is abandoning the entire system it had created. Its new approach of reciprocal | Lawrence Wong | |
tariffs, country by country, is a complete rejection of the WTO framework. The US has placed | Lawrence Wong | |
Singapore in the lowest-based tier with a tariff of 10%. So the direct impact on us may be limited | Lawrence Wong | |
for now. But there are wider and more profound consequences. If other countries adopt the same | Lawrence Wong | |
approach as the US, abandoning the WTO and trading only on their own preferred terms, country by | Lawrence Wong | |
country, it will spell trouble for all nations, especially small ones like Singapore. | Lawrence Wong | |
We risk being squeezed out, marginalized, and left behind. We can also expect a strong global | Lawrence Wong | |
response to America's tariffs. Singapore has decided not to impose retaliatory tariffs, | Lawrence Wong | |
but other countries may not exercise the same restraint. The likelihood of a full-blown global | Lawrence Wong | |
trade war is growing. The impact of the higher tariffs allows the uncertainty of what other | Lawrence Wong | |
countries may do next, worldwide, heavily on the global economy. International trade and | Lawrence Wong | |
investments will suffer and global growth will slow. Singapore will take a bigger hit than others, | Lawrence Wong | |
because of our heavy reliance on trade. The last time the world experienced something like this | Lawrence Wong | |
was in the 1930s. Trade wars escalated into armed conflict and eventually the Second World War. | Lawrence Wong | |
No one can say how the current situation will unfold in the coming months or years. | Lawrence Wong | |
But we must be clear-eyed about the dangers that are building up in the world. | Lawrence Wong | |
Global institutions are getting weaker. International norms are eroding. | Lawrence Wong | |
More and more countries will act based on narrow self-interest and use force or pressure to get | Lawrence Wong | |
their way. This is the harsh reality of our world today. We will stay vigilant. We will build up | Lawrence Wong | |
our capabilities. We will strengthen our network of partnerships with like-minded countries. | Lawrence Wong | |
We are more ready than many other countries with our reserves, our cohesion, and our resolve. | Lawrence Wong | |
But we must brace ourselves for more shocks to come. The global calm and stability we once knew | Lawrence Wong | |
will not return anytime soon. We cannot expect that the rules which protected small states | Lawrence Wong | |
will still hold. I am sharing this with you so that we can all be mentally prepared, | Lawrence Wong | |
so that we will not be caught off guard. Let us not be lulled into complacency. | Lawrence Wong | |
The risks are real and the stakes are high. The road ahead will be harder. | Lawrence Wong | |
But if we stay resolute and united, Singapore will continue to hold its own in this troubled world. | Lawrence Wong |
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