As tariffs bite into margins, AI investments must deliver

ON APR 2, the United States announced a broad-based 10 per cent baseline tariff on all imports, in addition to “reciprocal tariffs” on a few dozen countries, as part of its latest trade measures. The policy is applied uniformly across trading partners – including longstanding economic partners like Singapore, with whom the US runs a trade surplus.

For Singapore, built on the principles of free trade, this marks a significant inflection point. As Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned in his recent S Rajaratnam Lecture: “The global order we took for granted is fraying, and the risks of fragmentation and disorder are growing.” For small, open economies like Singapore, this development poses existential risks.

Yet it’s precisely in this moment of global fragility that Singapore must respond with clarity and conviction – not least in the technological and digital infrastructure we’ve built, the talent we’ve nurtured, and the transformation model we’ve pursued.