Trade isn't supposed to be emotional. It is now

SINGAPORE FIGURED IT had done a lot right in handling commercial ties with the US. Leaders emphasised America's surplus and put huge store in the nations' two-decade-old free trade accord.

- DANIEL MOSS Bloomberg

When President Donald Trump hit the city-state with a 10% levy, it was small comfort that the penalty was so much lower than that imposed on neighbours. How can longtime partners put a traditionally strong relationship back on track?

So when former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked a similar question at a Nomura conference in Singapore this month, the hotel ballroom was all ears.

The challenge for negotiators, said Turnbull, is figuring out what the White House wants. It's not just about the levies themselves, it's the constant flux. Tariffs are on, then paused. They're ratcheted up, then dialled down. Even the rationale has shifted: In Trump's first term, when Turnbull was prime minister, the fixation was with trade deficits. Now, it's reindustrialisation and generating revenue to offset tax cuts.