PHILIPPINE President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally will secure a more favourable trade deal before an August 1 deadline.
Marcos will be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China.
“I expect our discussions to focus on security and defence, of course, but also on trade,” Marcos said in a speech before leaving Manila. “We will see how much progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we would like to institute to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines.”
The United States had a deficit of nearly $5 billion with the Philippines last year on bilateral goods trade of $23.5bn. Trump this month raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from the Philippines to 20 per cent from 17pc threatened in April.
Although US allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea have yet to strike trade deals with Trump, Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said Marcos might be able to do better than Vietnam, with its agreement of a 20pc baseline tariff on its goods, and Indonesia at 19pc.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see an announcement of a deal with the Philippines at a lower rate than those two,” Poling said.
Marcos, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, went to the Pentagon yesterday morning for talks with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and will see Secretary of State Marco Rubio later in the day, before meeting Trump at the White House today. He will also meet US business leaders investing in the Philippines.
Philippine officials say Marcos’ focus will be on economic cooperation and Manila’s concerns about the tariffs. They say he will stress that Manila must become economically stronger if it is to serve as a truly robust US partner in the Indo-Pacific.
Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Raquel Solano said last week trade officials have been working with US counterparts seeking to seal a “mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial” deal for both countries.
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