Mr Wong also noted that some people had previously questioned his assessment that the changing world will disadvantage small open economies like Singapore.
This latest move by the US leaves “no room for doubt”. He said it marked a “seismic change” in the global order, one where rules-based globalisation and free trade is over, to turn into one that is “more arbitrary, protectionist, and dangerous”.
For decades, the US had championed free trade and led efforts to build a multilateral trading system, anchored by clear rules and norms. It was one where countries could achieve win-win benefits through trade, he added.
This “WTO (World Trade Organization) system” brought unprecedented stability and prosperity to the world – and to the US itself.
“To be clear, the system is not perfect. Singapore, and many others, have long called for reform – to update the rules and to make the system better,” he said.
“But what the US is doing now is not reform. It is abandoning the entire system it had created. Its new approach of reciprocal tariffs, country by country, is a complete rejection of the WTO framework.”
Singapore is in the lowest base tier – with a tariff of 10 per cent – so the direct impact may be limited for the time being. But he said there are wider and more profound consequences if other countries follow suit, as that will spell trouble, especially for smaller countries like Singapore.
“We risk being squeezed out, marginalised and left behind,” he said, adding that the last time the world experienced something like this was in the 1930s.
That was when trade wars escalated into armed conflict and eventually, WWII.
