SINGAPORE, March 13 — Singapore will be engaging with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to seek further clarification on the trade data over the Section 301 investigations, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

The ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Singapore has a trade deficit with the US and a very healthy industrial space occupancy rates.

“In the Office of the USTR’s Federal Register Notice, Singapore is highlighted as having a bilateral trade surplus with the US in both goods and services amounting to US$27 billion (US$1=RM3.92) in 2024.

“On the contrary, according to US Bureau of Economic Analysis data, Singapore had a bilateral goods trade deficit of US$1.7 billion and a services trade deficit of US$25.1 billion with the US in 2024, amounting to a total trade deficit with the US of about US$27 billion,” it said.

Singapore, as well as Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand are among the 16 economies named in the probe launched by the Office of the USTR under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.

According to MTI, the notice also suggested that Singapore has continued to expand manufacturing capacity despite a drop in industrial occupancy rates.

“In fact, Singapore’s industrial space occupancy rates are very healthy at around 90 per cent and have been consistently so.

“Land is a scarce resource in Singapore and the amount of land set aside for industrial use has decreased over time due to other land use needs,” it added. — Bernama