A fair deal?

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 23 Jul 2025 by Diwa Guinigundo
In our recent report on the Philippines’ negotiation with the US government on the level of reciprocal tariff, we argued that only its military and security value could be the only bargaining chip of President Marcos in his recent visit to the US. And he should not squander it. Its small trade surplus could in fact be a liability because in there, there is limited play unlike in China, Vietnam and Indonesia where trade concessions could go a long, long way. Now that the US visit was over, what happened at the Oval Office? President Trump “tweeted” today that Marcos and his “many representatives” just left the White House and it was a beautiful visit. The trade deal is going OPEN MARKET with the United States with ZERO tariffs. What about the Philippines? Trump has this to say: “The Philippines will pay a 19% tariff.” And not really a big surprise is Trump’s additional comment that the two countries will work together militarily. Based on these, the Philippines on a net basis actually lost 2 percentage points from the initial 17% reciprocal tariff. In exchange for that loss, the Philippines, and this is the big surprise, will welcome US exports to the Philippines with zero tariff! As we wrote earlier, and as many observers argued, the Philippines' paltry trade surplus with the US of $3.3 billion is nothing compared with Vietnam ($123.5 billion), Indonesia ($17.9 billion), and even Japan ($70 billion). Yet these countries succeeded in significantly trimming their reciprocal tariffs even as Vietnam and Indonesia have been cited in some publications to be transshipment points for Chinese goods aimed at bypassing US tariffs. There is no hint, or even a trace, of reciprocity...

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register
Sign-in
Forgot your password?
Copyright 2025 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved. This is prepared for GlobalSource Partners’ clients and may not be redistributed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, retransmitted or disclosed, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express written consent of GlobalSource Partners. This is distributed simultaneously to our website and other portals used by GlobalSource Partners. The information herein was obtained from various sources and is believed to be reliable but GlobalSource Partners does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Neither GlobalSource Partners nor any Country Analyst, officer or employee accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses rising from any use of this or its contents.