Every free trade agreement is a judgement call

We are an open economy by necessity. We are a small country by physical reality.

A small country highly dependent on trade makes us vulnerable to anti-trade measures like tariffs. As a small country, our negotiating power is small and being small, we do not have many weapons in our disposal to retaliate in a trade war.

This is why Singapore adopts a rules-based approach to trade and international affairs and support multilateral institutions.