NOT IN SINGAPORE’S NATIONAL INTEREST TO BE “MADE USE OF”: BALAKRISHNAN
Following Dr Tan’s reply, Assoc Prof Lim said that he had initially posed his question to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and asked if an MFA minister could respond to questions that “call for … a foreign policy approach”.
Highlighting that a much larger share of Nvidia’s revenue was billed to Singapore compared with physical deliveries to the country, Assoc Prof Lim asked if the ministry was aware of such “imbalances” and whether they are “positive or negative for the national interest from a foreign policy angle”.
Responding to this, Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that Singapore is a transshipment hub and the global headquarters for thousands of international companies, and Singapore’s trade volume is three times the size of GDP.
“These unique characteristics are par for the course for the unique role Singapore plays in the global economy,” Dr Balakrishnan said.
“There’s nothing unusual or unbalanced about that. The nub of the question really whether Singapore is being used by these enterprises and companies to evade unilateral export controls.”
He reiterated that Singapore is not legally obliged to enforce unilateral export measures of other countries, but said that it is not in the country’s national interest to be “made use of”.
“We will not allow them to use that association with us to engage in deceptive or evasive measures to avoid unilateral export measures that apply to them. The point is, the onus is on that company and we will not countenance evasion, deception, false declarations or even misaccounting,” he said.
Dr Balakrishnan added that if a trading partner comes to Singapore with concerns, Singapore will facilitate investigations and check if there is any cause for concern.
“We do that in order to protect our own national interests,” he said, adding that Singapore also has a need for AI chips.
The AI diffusion rule was published near the end of the Biden administration and is now up for comments, so the situation is still evolving, he said.
“Needless to say, we will continue to engage the major exporting source of these advanced chips to ensure that we have adequate,” he said.
He added: “In a world which is bifurcating or fracturing or polarising and divided, it is all the more important for us to play it straight, for me to say the same thing in Beijing and Washington and to be fair. That’s why everything that Minister Tan has said applies to all our trading partners.”
Nominated MP Mark Lee then raised a question about the economic implications of Singapore being listed as a Tier Two country under new US AI export controls.
Dr Tan said that the new US administration has not commented on their policy or position towards the new rule and the US did not share specific requirements on the tiering requirements, or what would be required for a country to be reclassified to a higher tier.
“We are in consultation with industry players in Singapore to gather feedback on the potential impact of the draft rules on their business activities and this will allow us to better consider appropriate measures to support our companies,” he said. “We are also … engaging the US to address their concerns and to also better understand their approach to the AI diffusion rule.”
