Forum: New Cabinet needs to look for multiple ways forward to ensure Singapore's economic resilience
Forum: New Cabinet needs to look for multiple ways forward to ensure Singapore's economic resilience
I refer to the article 'America's great economic waterfall is drying up' (May 22), which raised several points about how Singapore can pivot in order to seize opportunities arising from the ongoing reset in global economic relationships.
While Singapore may have certain value propositions in our trade negotiations with the US, we must remain realistic. Other countries may have similar or even better offers as they try to secure their own trade deals. This was evident during US President Donald Trump's recent visit to the Middle East.
With reciprocal trade tariffs and policies in flux, Singapore can't expect its existing advantages to hold. The new Cabinet will need to look for multiple ways forward to navigate through headwinds and ensure Singapore's economic resilience.
To quote former defence minister Ng Eng Hen, 'we take the world as it is – not as we wish it to be, no matter how much we wish it to be'.
Ivan Phang
More on this Topic Forum: What readers are saying
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
35 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Record number of people displaced by violence in Haiti, UN agency says
FILE PHOTO: A man holds placards as he yells toward a patrol car near a burning barricade during a protest against gang-related violence and to demand the resignation of Haiti's transitional presidential council, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jean Feguens Regala/File Photo GENEVA - A record 1.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Haiti due to a surge in armed violence in the last six months, according to the UN agency for migration. The number of people internally displaced in the Caribbean country has jumped 24% since December, according to the International Organization for Migration. It is the highest number of people displaced by violence ever recorded by the IOM in the country. "Behind these numbers are so many individual people whose suffering is immeasurable; children, mothers, the elderly, many of them forced to flee their homes multiple now living in conditions that are neither safe nor sustainable," said Amy Pope, IOM Director General. Gangs armed with weapons largely trafficked from the United States have formed an alliance in the capital Port-au-Prince and together control 85% of the city, according to the U.N. A growing number of people are fleeing the capital for safety elsewhere in the country, according to the IOM. In the Centre Department, a region north of the capital, fighting has driven double the number of people away from their homes from around 68,000 to more than 147,000 in towns like Mirebalais and Saut-d'Eau, the IOM said. Many people are living in makeshift shelters and do not have access to health care, schooling or clean water, it added. In February UNICEF reported on a surge in sexual violence against children in Haiti. Extreme poverty has also pushed children into gangs, with up to half of all armed groups made up of minors, according to the U.N. children's agency. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
AsiaOne
42 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Trump tariffs may remain in effect while appeals proceed, US appeals court rules, World News
A federal appeals court allowed President Donald Trump's most sweeping tariffs to remain in effect on Tuesday (June 10) while it reviews a lower-court decision blocking them on grounds that he had exceeded his authority by imposing them. The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC means Trump may continue to enforce, for now, his "Liberation Day" tariffs on imports from most US trading partners, as well as a separate set of tariffs levied on Canada, China and Mexico. The appeals court has yet to rule on whether the tariffs are permissible under an emergency economic powers act that Trump cited to justify them, but it allowed the duties to remain in place while the appeals play out. The Federal Circuit said the litigation raised issues of "exceptional importance" warranting the court to take the rare step of having the 11-member court hear the appeal, rather than have it go before a three-judge panel first. It scheduled arguments for July 31. The tariffs, used by Trump as negotiating leverage with US trading partners, and their on-again, off-again nature, have shocked markets and whipsawed companies of all sizes as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. The ruling has no impact on other tariffs levied under more traditional legal authority, such as duties on steel and aluminium imports. A three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled on May 28 that the US Constitution gave Congress, not the president, the power to levy taxes and tariffs, and that the president had exceeded his authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law intended to address "unusual and extraordinary" threats during national emergencies. The Trump administration quickly appealed the ruling, and the Federal Circuit in Washington put the lower court decision on hold the next day while it considered whether to impose a longer-term pause. The May 28 ruling came in a pair of lawsuits, one filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Centre on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties, and the other by 12 US states led by Oregon. Jeffrey Schwab, an attorney for the small businesses that sued, said Tuesday's federal appeals court decision was disappointing, but it did not mean that the Trump administration would win in the end. "It's important to note that every court to rule on the merits so far has found these tariffs unlawful, and we have faith that this court will likewise see what is plain as day: that IEEPA does not allow the president to impose whatever tax he wants whenever he wants," Schwab said Tuesday. The White House and state of Oregon did not immediately respond to requests for comment after normal business hours on Tuesday. Trump has claimed broad authority to set tariffs under IEEPA. The 1977 law has historically been used to impose sanctions on enemies of the US or freeze their assets. Trump is the first US president to use it to impose tariffs. Trump has said that the tariffs imposed in February on Canada, China and Mexico were to fight illegal fentanyl trafficking at US borders, denied by the three countries, and that the across-the-board tariffs on all US trading partners imposed in April were a response to the US trade deficit. The states and small businesses had argued the tariffs were not a legal or appropriate way to address those matters, and the small businesses argued that the decades-long US practice of buying more goods than it exports does not qualify as an emergency that would trigger IEEPA. At least five other court cases have challenged the tariffs justified under the emergency economic powers act, including other small businesses and the state of California. One of those cases, in federal court in Washington, DC, also resulted in an initial ruling against the tariffs, and no court has yet backed the unlimited emergency tariff authority Trump has claimed. [[nid:718640]]
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Musk says he regrets some posts he made about Trump
Musk says he regrets some posts he made about Trump WASHINGTON – Billionaire Elon Musk said on June 11 that he regrets some of the posts he made about US President Donald Trump in a message on his social media platform X. 'I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far,' Mr Musk wrote. Mr Trump and Mr Musk began exchanging insults last week on social media, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing the president's sweeping tax and spending Bill as a 'disgusting abomination'. Mr Musk's post comes days after Mr Trump said his relationship with Mr Musk was over. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
