Trump Tariffs Risk Turning Global Trade Into An ‘Arm-Wrestling Match,’ Says Singapore FM

President Donald Trump’s tariff war risks turning global trade into an “arm-wrestling match,” according to Singapore’s Foreign Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan.

This could trigger reciprocal tariffs from other countries, Balakrishnan said during a fireside chat at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, according to Bloomberg.

“Instead of a rules-based global system that promotes trade, you now have a system where every trade agreement becomes a bilateral arm-wrestling match,” Balakrishnan said, adding that this could result in an escalatory spiral.

Amid reports that President Trump would impose 10% tariffs on 150 countries, Balakrishnan said that the rate “does not quite compute,” given that there is a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Singapore, and that the United States runs a trade surplus with the Southeast Asian city-state.

“We’ll have well, over 150 countries that we’re just going to send a notice of payment out, and the notice of payment is going to say what the tariff,” rate will be, President Trump told reporters on Wednesday at the White House.

This comes days after more than two dozen countries were slapped with tariffs – some faced levies higher than those announced on “Liberation Day”.

Most recently, Trump hit the European Union and Mexico with 30% tariffs. However, he said he’s willing to talk to the EU, saying he’d like to do a “different” kind of deal with the economic bloc.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities exhibited optimism in Thursday’s pre-market trade as investors digested earnings of big companies through the week so far.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was up 0.11% at the time of writing, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) gained 0.23%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits has been in the ‘bearish’ territory over the past week.

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Also See: Norway, US Have A ‘Good Tone’ In Trump Tariff Negotiations, Says FM Stoltenberg