Singapore PM Wong Says US Trade Actions Are ‘Not Reform’

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said the US has backed away from the multilateral trading system that it helped build, as he pointed to trade wars in the 1930s which escalated to armed conflict and eventually the Second World War.

President Donald Trump’s approach of reciprocal tariffs is a “complete rejection of the WTO framework,” Wong said in a video posted on YouTube. While the system is not perfect, it had brought unprecedented stability and prosperity globally including to the US, he said.

“Singapore and many others have long called for reform to update the rules and to make ...