I promise you not a single vendor is absorbing the tariffs, but a few are getting around it by just moving production for the US market to other factories they already own in Southeast Asia.
Often not even moving the production to other factories. The tracking on this stuff is comically underfunded and underserved. You can absolutely make a widget in a tariff country, like China, stamp it “Made in The Philippines” or Indonesia or wherever, and move it into the US without paying the tax.
These companies were already afraid of the Chinese government absorbing them and moved “headquarters” to Singapore.
Given the degree to which Singapore is beholden to Chinese owned and operated businesses and falls within the operating range of the Chinese military, this is more a Hong Kong style bureaucratic loophole than a real escape from China as a sphere of influence. Its like banking out of Bermuda while you work in the United States. A legal fiction that gets you out of a certain degree of taxation/regulation, but does nothing to shield you from the Coast Guard or the FBI.
Often not even moving the production to other factories. The tracking on this stuff is comically underfunded and underserved. You can absolutely make a widget in a tariff country, like China, stamp it “Made in The Philippines” or Indonesia or wherever, and move it into the US without paying the tax.
Given the degree to which Singapore is beholden to Chinese owned and operated businesses and falls within the operating range of the Chinese military, this is more a Hong Kong style bureaucratic loophole than a real escape from China as a sphere of influence. Its like banking out of Bermuda while you work in the United States. A legal fiction that gets you out of a certain degree of taxation/regulation, but does nothing to shield you from the Coast Guard or the FBI.