The Singapore Financial Resilience Taskforce (SERT) introduced on Thursday (July 10) that it’ll launch a Enterprise Adaptation Grant in October to assist Singaporean corporations adapt to the brand new tariff surroundings amid the imposition of recent reciprocal tariff charges by america.
The grant, which features a co-funding part, can be capped at S$100,000, stated Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng at a SERT press convention.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which rent about two-thirds of Singaporean staff, will probably be capable to obtain a better proportion of co-funding from the federal government than multinational corporations (MNCs).
Two classes of companies will qualify for the grant, and eligible corporations can be supported for a “time-bound interval” of two years.
Firms that export or function in abroad markets and are affected by tariffs make up the primary group. The grant will allow them to conduct free commerce agreements, commerce compliance advisory, authorized and contractual advisory, and provide chain optimisation and market diversification advisory providers.
The second group of corporations are these with manufacturing operations abroad or domestically that want help with reconfiguration prices, together with logistics and stock holding prices.
Dr. Tan, who additionally serves as Second Minister for Commerce and Business, stated that the Enterprise Adaptation Grant enhances different schemes that assist companies enter new markets, rework, innovate and develop.
Extra particulars concerning the grant can be launched later.
Since its inception in April (in response to the US tariffs and world financial uncertainties), SERT has engaged greater than 3,000 individuals. This consists of enterprise leaders, union leaders, staff, and new graduates, shared Minister for Digital Growth and Data Josephine Teo, who was additionally on the press convention.
New US reciprocal tariff charges
The SERT press convention was held two days after US President Donald Trump started sending letters to over 20 international locations, informing them that they might be topic to sharply steeper tariff charges from August 1, to allay US “commerce deficits.”
Though Singapore has but to obtain a letter from Washington and presently stays topic to a ten% baseline tariff, its neighbours, akin to Malaysia and Indonesia, have been slapped with charges of 25% and 32%, respectively.
| Laos | 40% |
| Myanmar | 40% |
| Cambodia | 36% |
| Thailand | 36% |
| Bangladesh | 35% |
| Indonesia | 32% |
| Japan | 25% |
| Malaysia | 25% |
| South Korea | 25% |
Trump first introduced the protectionist measure in April. Since then, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Gan Kim Yong, who chairs SERT, has famous that tariffs for some Asian international locations have been decreased, whereas these for others have been elevated.
These strikes “will probably extend the uncertainty and volatility and challenges for the economies world wide,” he stated.
“We hope that negotiations and consultations will proceed and that the US will be capable to attain offers (with these international locations).”
Additional discussions nonetheless ongoing
Based on DPM Gan, discussions with the U.S. on potential concessions for pharmaceutical tariffs are in progress, though he didn’t elaborate additional. He goals to “higher perceive” U.S. issues, priorities and pursuits, whereas exploring “sensible and implementable approaches for (Singaporean) corporations” and strengthening bilateral ties.
He talked about that there are additionally “potential alternatives” for Singaporean companies to discover within the US, in sectors akin to AI, expertise and superior manufacturing sooner or later.
DPM Gan can be travelling to the U.S. later this month for additional dialogues with the Trump administration and enterprise leaders.
In the meantime, companies in Singapore have been making ready to regulate to the brand new tariff panorama. Some have taken benefit of the transient halt to reciprocal tariffs to frontload their exports to the U.S. Gan forsees that the financial system is more likely to climate the storm properly for the primary half of this 12 months.
“Nevertheless, given the expectation of upper tariffs going ahead, in addition to the diminishing frontloading impact, we’ll probably see slower financial progress over the following six to 12 months.”
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singapore’s present affairs right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: NTUC
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