Why the Hurry?: What Singapore's New Tariff Task Force Is Really About

Like a plane flying through turbulence, success requires staying on top of sudden shifts, responding nimbly and setting a course for the long term.

- Lin Suling

There is a standard Singapore response to wicked problems: Set up a task force. Throw in ministers. Launch work streams. Engage stakeholders. Provide updates. Deliver a report.

This approach has been deployed over the past decade to address issues ranging from the spiralling cost of infant milk formula to MRT breakdowns, from ransomware attacks to the flagging stock market.

So when last week's first meeting of a committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong to tackle the fallout from US President Donald Trump's tariffs seemed to herald the start of a familiar cycle, the response was understandably one of fatigue and scepticism.

The refrain: "Why the hurry? We don't know the consequences of the tariffs yet."

Except we do.

FLYING A PLANE THROUGH TURBULENCE

The Economic Resilience Taskforce has three main focus areas: sense-making and communications led by Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo; short-term support led by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng and NTUC chief Ng Chee Meng; and long-term strategising led by National Development Minister Desmond Lee and Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat.

The logic may not be immediately obvious. A seemingly modest 10 per cent tariff on Singapore could lull us into thinking we have been spared the worst of Mr Trump's ire, with optimists floating the idea Singapore might again benefit as it did during the 2018 trade war when multinationals adopted a China Plus One strategy.

But that view risks ageing badly, perhaps faster than the early insistence that Singapore would be unaffected by tariffs given our trade deficit with the US.

The reality is this: We have entered a new age of radical uncertainty. Mr Trump's tariffs peek-a-boo has injected "off-the-charts" uncertainty into global markets, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on April 17.