Singapore: No clarity yet on baseline or pharmaceutical tariffs with US

The US government did not negotiate its tariffs on Singapore and did not want to commit on whether the 10 per cent baseline tax could rise or fall in the future, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.

DPM Gan, who visited the US from July 20 to 26, added that he did not get to further discussions on pharmaceutical tariffs being contemplated by the Trump administration.

He told the SG60 IPS-SBF Conference on July 29 that these talks did not take place as he did not get the chance to meet Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He did, however, meet other officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. They discussed ways to keep up the long and mutually beneficial bilateral economic relationship, as well as potential collaboration in areas like the digital economy.

DPM Gan also met business leaders in New York, and congressional leaders handling trade issues in Washington. He also visited an ST Engineering aerostructures factory in Maryland.

The US administration was “not in the mood to discuss any discount to the baseline tariff”, DPM Gan said at a dialogue moderated by Mr David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor.

“We also wanted to know whether the baseline tariff will stay at 10 per cent or will it be higher or lower? The answer was non-committal. They are still reviewing the tariff and, in time to come, they will make the appropriate announcement. So we just have to wait and see.”

DPM Gan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry, said he has told US officials that Singapore would be keen to negotiate its baseline tariff rate if the opportunity arises.

Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, which are key exports from Singapore to the US, are currently exempt from baseline tariffs. But US President Donald Trump had earlier in 2025 threatened to end an exemption for pharmaceutical imports, saying tariffs would be imposed “at a level that you haven’t really seen before”. The US is a major market for Singapore-based drugmakers including American multinationals like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

DPM Gan said official-level discussions between Singapore and the US Department of Commerce, which commenced before his trip, are still ongoing. “I can’t go into detail because negotiation is ongoing and there’s a bit of a confidentiality we need to maintain on both sides,” he said when asked what the US was looking to secure through these talks.

He added that the US generally had concerns about what the country experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, when supplies of critical pharmaceuticals were disrupted.

“They want to make sure that they have a secure supply line of pharmaceuticals. They do want to see whether they can onshore this production, so that they can produce (it) themselves. But they also know that it’s not possible to onshore everything, because some of the raw materials are actually (from) outside of America,” he said.

“They do need to think about how they can work with partners, trusted partners, to make sure that their supply chain is secure and reliable. So that is what they are looking for in their partners, including Singapore,” he added.

“I think the administration’s focus now is to finish the negotiation of reciprocal tariffs. Then it will start to engage countries on specific sectoral tariffs in pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.”

Source: The Straits Times