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Singapore Trading Partners
Along with the changes in the composition of trade that
had
taken place since independence, there also were changes in
direction. The preeminence of Britain as supplier of
manufactures
declined after independence, and by the early 1970s the
United
States and Japan had become Singapore's two leading
sources of
industrial products. Malaysia and Indonesia remained the
principal
sources of such primary imports as crude rubber, vegetable
oils,
and spices and an important destination for manufactured
exports,
including both the products of Singapore and of the
entrepôt trade.
Singapore did not report trade with Indonesia. The
omission
dated from the period of the Indonesian Confrontation in
the mid1960s and continued, according to some observers, because
Singapore
was afraid that if the Indonesian government knew the
volume of the
trade, it might try to curtail it. Estimates were
difficult because
a substantial part of the trade was viewed by Indonesia as
smuggling and was, therefore, unlisted, although in
Singapore's
open export market it was legal. Nevertheless, trade with
Indonesia
could be presumed, based partly on Indonesian trade
figures, to
have assumed a gradually larger role starting in the
mid-1970s.
As Singapore became more export oriented, its trading
patterns
became increasingly complex and interdependent. By the
late 1980s,
Singapore's trade links were strongest with the countries
of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(
OECD--see Glossary),
especially the United States, Japan, and the
countries
of the European Economic Community
(
EEC--see Glossary) or of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(
ASEAN--see Glossary; see
table 11, Appendix). Singapore's drive to
industrialization had
drawn it increasingly towards the OECD countries for
foreign
investment, technology, and markets. To a large extent,
this shift
had meant decreasing reliance on its ASEAN neighbors,
particularly
for markets and supplies (see
table 12, Appendix). The
other Asian
NIEs, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan, were sometimes viewed
as
Singapore's competitors. On the other hand, Singapore
engaged in
considerable and growing trade with them, particularly
with Taiwan,
and all three were a source of skilled labor.
Data as of December 1989
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