Singapore says U.S. non-committal on whether baseline tariff will stay at 10%

SINGAPORE, July 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. was non-committal on whether its baseline tariff on Singaporean goods would stay at 10% in talks last week, Singapore's trade minister Gan Kim Yong said at a conference on Tuesday.

Gan, who is also deputy prime minister, visited the U.S. last week to discuss tariff concessions for the country's pharmaceutical exports, part of efforts to limit the economic impact of the trade war.

Singapore's exports to the U.S. have been subject to the baseline tariff since it was introduced in April.

The tariff was levied on Singapore despite a free trade agreement in place with the island nation since 2004.

Gan said he thought the United States was focusing on its "reciprocal" tariff talks first, and would then look at the sector-specific tariffs it has said it was looking at implementing.

In July, the nation's central bank warned that Singapore's economic growth is likely to slow in the second half of the year despite a better-than-expected performance in the first half because of uncertainties over tariffs.