Leaders anticipated to carry talks on bilateral commerce days earlier than US tariffs on Philippine items set to take impact.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will meet United States President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s standing as a key Asian ally will safe a extra beneficial commerce deal.
Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian chief to fulfill Trump in the course of the US chief’s second time period.
Trump has already struck commerce offers with two of Manila’s regional companions, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving powerful bargains in negotiations even with shut allies that Washington needs to maintain onside in its strategic rivalry with China.
“I count on our discussions to concentrate on safety and defence, after all, but in addition on commerce,” Marcos stated in a speech earlier than leaving Manila and arriving in Washington on Sunday, with hopes to succeed in a deal earlier than August 1, when Trump says he’ll impose 20 % tariffs on items from the Philippines.
“We are going to see how a lot progress we are able to make relating to the negotiations with america regarding the modifications that we wish to institute to alleviate the consequences of a really extreme tariff schedule on the Philippines,” Marcos stated.
The US had a deficit of practically $5bn with the Philippines final yr on bilateral items commerce of $23.5bn.
Trump this month raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from the Philippines to twenty % from 17 % threatened in April.
Though US allies in Asia akin to Japan and South Korea have but to strike commerce offers with Trump, Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia skilled at Washington’s Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research, stated Marcos would possibly be capable of do higher than Vietnam, with its settlement of a 20 % baseline tariff on its items, and Indonesia at 19 %.
“I wouldn’t be shocked to see an announcement of a take care of the Philippines at a decrease charge than these two,” Poling advised the Reuters information company.
Marcos visited the Pentagon on Monday morning for talks with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and can see Secretary of State Marco Rubio later within the day, earlier than assembly Trump on the White Home on Tuesday.
He will even meet US enterprise leaders investing within the Philippines.
Philippine officers say Marcos’s focus might be on financial cooperation and Manila’s issues about Trump’s tariffs.
They are saying he’ll stress that Manila should grow to be economically stronger whether it is to function a really strong US accomplice within the Asia Pacific.
Philippine Assistant International Secretary Raquel Solano stated final week that commerce officers have been working with US counterparts looking for to seal a “mutually acceptable and mutually useful” deal for each international locations.
China tensions
Trump and Marcos will even talk about defence and safety, and Solano stated the Philippine president can be trying to additional strengthen the longstanding defence alliance.
Philippine media quoted Manila’s ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, as saying on Sunday that the go to would see a reaffirmation of the seven-decade-old mutual defence treaty and “discussions on how we are able to proceed to cooperate with america, our main ally”.
With the Philippines going through intense stress from China within the contested South China Sea, Marcos has pivoted nearer to the US, increasing entry to Philippine navy bases amid China’s threats in the direction of Taiwan, the democratically ruled island claimed by Beijing.
The US and the Philippines maintain dozens of annual workout routines, which have included coaching with the US Typhon missile system, and extra just lately, with the NMESIS antiship missile system, angering China.
Manila and the US have intently aligned their views on China, Poling stated, and it was notable that Rubio and Hegseth made certain their Philippine counterparts had been the primary Southeast Asian officers they met.
Poling stated Trump additionally appeared to have a sure heat in the direction of Marcos, based mostly on their cellphone name after Trump’s re-election.
