Trump says US, Philippines ‘very close’ to trade deal
US President Donald Trump invited Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos JR to the White House and said the two countries were close to concluding a trade agreement.
“Today we will talk about trade and we are very close to finishing a great trade agreement,” he said, in his statement to journalists at the beginning of his meeting with the Philippine leader.
Trump has already made trade agreements with the two regional partners of Vietnam and Indonesia.
Last year, the United States revealed about $ 5 billion (A7.7 billion dollars) with the Philippines with the Philippines and 23.5 billion dollars of bilateral goods.
This month, Trump increased the “mutual” tariffs in Philippine imports from 17 percent to 20 percent in April.
Trump said that the two countries do “too much work ve and he was surprised to see that he said“ very big numbers ”that will grow only within a trade agreement.
Gregory Poling of Washington’s Strategic and International Research Center, Marcos’ property of a 20 percent basic tariff and Indonesia’s 19 percent agreement can do better than Vietnam, he said.
Trump underlined the importance of the US-philipin military relationship.
“They are a very important nation as a military and we have had some great exercises recently,” he said.
Marcos, who came to Washington DC on Sunday, went to Pentagon on Monday to meet with the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and then met with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio.
During his trip, he will also meet US business leaders who invest in the Philippines.
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