Goh Meng Seng says govt 'overreacted' to Trump's tariffs: 'The fearmongering is unnecessary'

Goh Meng Seng, secretary-general of the People's Power Party (PPP), said he believes the government's response to Trump's tariffs is "an overreaction".

Speaking to media at the sidelines of an Apr. 12 walkabout at Tampines Round Market and Food Centre in Tampines Changkat SMC, he said that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan "have overreacted".

"The fearmongering is unnecessary," he said.

Goh claimed that the tariffs will not stay long, since "nobody in his right mind" would impose "such massive tariffs for that many countries" for longer than two or three months.

"I think [the reaction] is uncalled for, and I worry we have such leaders in Singapore," he said.

"Do we have a knee-jerk effect, and jump every time something happens?"

He added that although Singapore does not want the tariffs, it was only hit with the "lowest tariffs" — the 10 per cent universal baseline — and hence "still can benefit" from the situation.

Earlier in the day, in an unrelated event, DPM Heng Swee Keat was asked if he had anything to say about comments on Apr. 6 from the Progress Singapore Party's Tan Cheng Bock and Leong Mun Wai on tariffs.

"It's not fearmongering," DPM had said.

He also rejected the idea that it was politicking, and reiterated how deeply this could impact Singapore.

"This is not about politicking. This is a serious policy issue affecting the whole of Singapore; affecting every worker, every business in Singapore".

Leong, PSP's secretary-general, had put up a Facebook post on Apr. 9 that PSP had "no intention of downplaying the new tariffs".

New faces

Goh also introduced three new potential candidates for the PPP.

These are Arbaah Haroun, 50, entrepreneur and a volunteer for PPP for quite some time, Martinn Ho, 64, a former engineer dealing with environmental protection and developmental control, and Peter Soh, 65, founder of green technology company Hydroball.

PPP had earlier signalled their intention to contest Ang Mo Kio.

Images by Breelyn