Singapore’s new task force on economic resilience to help businesses and workers convened for the first time on Wednesday amid growing global uncertainty over US tariffs.
With a baseline 10 per cent levy slapped on the city state by US President Donald Trump, Singapore could expect challenges from indirect effects of the tariffs as a small and open economy where trade volume was three times its gross domestic product, said Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, who leads the task force.
Gan also reiterated the comment by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in parliament last week that Singapore could not rule out a recession this year.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry on Monday downgraded its forecast of Singapore’s economic growth in 2025 to 0 per cent to 2 per cent, from 1 per cent to 3 per cent, with Washington’s tariffs cited as a key reason.
“The disorderly imposition of tariffs and retaliatory measures will fundamentally undermine the rules-based trading order and reshape the global multinational system. This will adversely affect small economies like Singapore, which depends on trade to grow our economy and to develop our economy,” Gan said.
The task force told the media during a briefing on Wednesday that it planned to deliver on three areas: communication between the government, businesses and workers; identifying pain points for businesses and workers and longer-term strategies.
The task force did not announce new schemes but noted that there were several programmes announced during the Budget debate in February that could help workers and businesses tide over a challenging global environment. These include unemployment support for retrenched workers and retraining allowances.
