S’pore has US$27b trade deficit with US, to seek clarification on US Trade Representative probe: MTI
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The Office of the United States Trade Representative has initiated a probe against more than 16 major economies, including Singapore.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
SINGAPORE – Singapore has a trade deficit with the US, and has “very healthy” industrial space occupancy rates, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on March 12.
This is contrary to information in a notice by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which initiated a probe against more than 16 major economies, including Singapore, focused on alleged excess manufacturing capacity.
MTI said in a statement that Singapore is highlighted in the US agency’s Federal Register Notice as having a bilateral trade surplus with the US in both goods and services amounting to US$27 billion (S$34.5 billion) in 2024.
“On the contrary, according to US Bureau of Economic Analysis data, Singapore had a bilateral goods trade deficit of US$1.7 billion and a services trade deficit of US$25.1 billion with the US in 2024, amounting to a total trade deficit with the US of about US$27 billion,” MTI said.
The notice also suggested that Singapore has continued to expand manufacturing capacity despite a drop in industrial occupancy rates, according to the ministry.
“In fact, Singapore’s industrial space occupancy rates are very healthy at around 90 per cent and have been consistently so. Land is a scarce resource in Singapore and the amount of land set aside for industrial use has decreased over time due to other land use needs,” MTI added.
It also said that it has provided the US agency with this information and will engage it to seek further clarification on the trade data and on the investigations, and businesses and other stakeholders are welcome to provide feedback to MTI at go.gov.sg/contactmti
The probe was announced by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on March 11, and is the first of several sweeping trade investigations that set the stage for new tariffs, the centrepiece of a push to replace levies struck down by the US Supreme Court.
The investigations are needed for US President Donald Trump to unilaterally place duties on imports from specific territories deemed to employ unfair trading practices.
Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam are also being investigated, alongside major US trading partners China, the European Union, Mexico, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
