This Is How Singapore Can Emerge stronger in a 'win-lose' world

When global trade relations based on a level playing field are threatened with collapse, how should Singapore respond? Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong offered his views at a dialogue with union leaders on April 14. The following are edited excerpts from his speech.

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We have gone through many crises before over the years. We have gone through the global financial crisis, before that, Asian financial crisis. We had Sars. Most recently, we have had Covid-19. And every now and again something happens in the world, we have carried along, and we have to batten down our hatches and see it through. And every time we have succeeded, so we have confidence. But one important thing which you must understand is that every time that happened, we had two big things going in our favour.

One, within Singapore, we were doing the right thing. We could get united. We could get our act together. We could respond with the right policies, even painful ones. And we could get the system, get ourselves sorted out.

Two, every time we got into trouble... Singapore was part of a working global economic system, trading system. And that trading system promoted free flow of trade, free flow of investments; it encouraged MNCs to look for places to do business. We were efficient. We were doing well. We came out from trouble, we plugged back in. We could resume growing, resume developing, resume succeeding.

It is a global financial system, the WTO system. And that was what helped us. It gave countries big and small a level playing field. Whether you are a big country or a small country, under the WTO system, the rules are the same, your access is the same.

Let us take an example, if the EU raises tariffs on cars from Japan. In order to protect European cars, you raise tariffs on Nissan or Toyota, then you must charge the same tariff on cars from every other country; Chinese cars, Korean cars, Indian cars, American cars. You have to treat them the same. If Singapore had cars to export, Singapore would also be charged the same tariffs.