{"id":305976,"date":"2026-02-23T12:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/305976\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:53:08","slug":"singapore-may-lose-slight-competitive-edge-under-new-15-us-tariffs-but-analysts-say-it-remains-resilient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/305976\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore may lose slight competitive edge under new 15% US tariffs, but analysts say it remains resilient"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE: The United States’ new 15 per cent blanket tariff on imports may narrow Singapore’s edge over regional peers, but analysts said on Monday (Feb 23) that the country remains well-positioned to weather the shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that the tariffs are applied broadly, Singapore loses a slight competitive edge as the playing field is now levelled at 15 per cent,\u201d said Ms Raisah Rasid, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.<\/p>\n

Mr Barnabas Gan, chief economist at RHB, echoed that view, saying the \u201clevelled playing field\u201d could erode some of Singapore\u2019s export competitiveness.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump announced the new tariff rate<\/a> over the weekend, although details of how the new tariff will be implemented have not been released yet.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Sunday that Singapore is seeking clarity from Washington<\/a> about the tariffs, and that the 15 per cent rate is likely to apply to Singapore.<\/p>\n

Singapore was previously subject to the baseline 10 per cent levy, while some other countries faced steeper reciprocal tariffs.<\/p>\n

Despite the increase, Singapore’s effective tariff burden remains the lowest in the region by a wide margin, according to Maybank Securities economist Brian Lee.<\/p>\n

He said Singapore will likely see a 1.8 percentage point increase in US tariffs to about 6.9 per cent on an effective basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis effective tariff rate remains the lowest in ASEAN by a wide margin,\u201d he said, noting that exemptions from last year\u2019s reciprocal tariffs are still in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingapore remains the ASEAN country with the largest share of exempted goods (such as semiconductors, electronics and pharmaceuticals). Exempted goods comprise more than 60 per cent of Singapore\u2019s US-bound shipments,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

SINGAPORE\u2019S STRENGTHS<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s competitive advantage lies \u201cbeyond the rudimentary calculation of tariff rate differentials\u201d, added Mr Edward Lee, chief economist at Standard Chartered.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetitiveness will encompass many other aspects, such as institutional stability, policy credibility and stability, robust financial capability, connectivity, productivity, expertise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Economic Strategy Review aims to increase Singapore\u2019s comparative advantage further so that the country is more anchored in new and growth sectors, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will help to improve the resilience of our economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE: The United States’ new 15 per cent blanket tariff on imports may narrow Singapore’s edge over regional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46,90924,27204],"class_list":["post-305976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-singapore-economy","tag-us-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}