Trump and Philippine leader plan to talk tariffs and China at the White House
Marcos, who met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, is set to become the first Southeast Asian leader to hold talks with Trump in his second term.
Marcos' three-day visit shows the importance of the alliance between the treaty partners at a time when China is increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal.
Washington sees Beijing, the world's No. 2 economy, as its biggest competitor, and consecutive presidential administrations have sought to shift U.S. military and economic focus to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to counter China. Trump, like others before him, has been distracted by efforts to broker peace in a range of conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza.
Tariffs also are expected to be on the agenda. Trump has threatened to impose 20% tariffs on Filipino goods on Aug. 1 unless the two sides can strike a deal.
"I intend to convey to President Trump and his Cabinet officials that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of,' Marcos said Sunday when he was departing for Washington, according to his office.
Manila is open to offering zero tariffs on some U.S. goods to strike a deal with Trump, finance chief Ralph Recto told local journalists.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hinted that a trade agreement with the Philippines was in the works. 'Perhaps this will be a topic of discussion,' she told reporters Monday when asked about tariff negotiations.
The White House said Trump will discuss with Marcos the shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific.
Before a meeting with Marcos at the Pentagon, Hegseth reiterated America's commitment to 'achieving peace through strength' in the region.
'Our storied alliance has never been stronger or more essential than it is today, and together we remain committed to the mutual defense treaty,' Hegseth said Monday. 'And this pact extends to armed attacks on our armed forces, aircraft or public vessels, including our Coast Guard anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea.'
Marcos, whose country is one of the oldest U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific region, told Hegseth that the assurance to come to each other's mutual defense 'continues to be the cornerstone of that relationship, especially when it comes to defense and security cooperation.'
He said the cooperation has deepened since Hegseth's March visit to Manila, including joint exercises and U.S. support in modernizing the Philippines' armed forces. Marcos thanked the U.S. for support 'that we need in the face of the threats that we, our country, is facing.'
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, a busy shipping passage for global trade.
The Chinese coast guard has repeatedly used water cannon to hit Filipino boats in the South China Sea. China accused those vessels of entering the waters illegally or encroaching on its territory.
Hegseth told a security forum in Singapore in May that China poses a threat and the U.S. is 'reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China.'
During Marcos' meeting Monday with Rubio, the two reaffirmed the alliance 'to maintain peace and stability' in the region and discussed closer economic ties, including boosting supply chains, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
The U.S. has endeavored to keep communication open with Beijing. Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met this month on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They agreed to explore 'areas of potential cooperation' and stressed the importance of managing differences.
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
US-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France, sources say
July 23 (Reuters) - U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organisations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters. The supplies have been stuck for months in a warehouse in Geel, a city in the Belgian province of Antwerp, following President Donald Trump's decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid in January. They comprise contraceptive implants and pills as well as intrauterine devices to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, according to seven sources and a screengrab shared by an eighth source confirming the planned destruction. The U.S. government will spend $160,000 to incinerate the stocks at a facility in France that handles medical waste, according to four of the sources with knowledge of the matter, following Trump's decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the negotiations to save the contraceptives from destruction or the plans to incinerate them. U.S. lawmakers have introduced two bills this month to prevent the destruction of the supplies but aid groups say the bills are unlikely to be passed in time to stop the incineration. The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with U.S. authorities and "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation." "Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome," it said in a statement shared with Reuters on Tuesday. "Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints," it added. The supplies, worth $9.7 million, are due to expire between April 2027 and September 2031, according to an internal document listing the warehouse stocks and verified by three sources. Sarah Shaw, Associate Director of Advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, told Reuters the non-profit organisation had volunteered to pay for the supplies to be repackaged without USAID branding and shipped to countries in need, but the offer was declined by the U.S. government. "MSI offered to pay for repackaging, shipping and import duties but they were not open to that... We were told that the U.S. government would only sell the supplies at the full market value," said Shaw. She did not elaborate on how much the NGO was prepared to pay, but said she felt the rejection was based on the Trump's administration's more restrictive stance on abortion and family planning. "This is clearly not about saving money. It feels more like an ideological assault on reproductive rights, and one that is already harming women." She added that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa had relied on USAID for access to contraception and that the aid cuts would lead to a rise in unsafe abortions. The United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, also offered to buy the contraceptives outright, three sources told Reuters, without disclosing the financial terms of the proposal. However, negotiations broke down, a source with knowledge of the talks said, in part due to a lack of response from the U.S. government. UNFPA declined to comment. One of the sources with knowledge of the issue said that the Trump administration was acting in accordance with the Mexico City policy, an anti-abortion pact in which Trump reinstated U.S. participation in January. The pact forbids the U.S. government from contributing to or working with organisations providing funding or supplies that offer access to abortions. The source said there was no way for the U.S. government to ensure that UNFPA would not share the contraceptives with groups offering abortions, violating the Mexico City policy. The source also said the matter was complicated by the fact that the contraceptives in Belgium were embossed with the USAID trademark and Washington did not want any USAID-branded supplies to be rerouted elsewhere. UNFPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the concerns raised by the source. MSI, which says on its website that it fights for a future where everyone can access contraception and abortion, accused the State Department earlier this month of being "hellbent on destroying life-saving medical supplies, incurring additional costs for the U.S. taxpayer in the process." The State Department declined to comment. Abortion is a divisive issue in U.S. politics and was a major issue in the 2024 election won by Trump. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to eliminate a nationwide right to abortion, leaving abortion laws to each of the 50 states. One of the two sources who told Reuters the stocks of contraceptives were being trucked to France said it would likely take dozens of truckloads and at least two weeks to move the supplies out of the Geel warehouse, with a third source also confirming the scale of the operation. The French government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chemonics, the contractor managing the supply chain for USAID's family planning programme, declined to comment on the plans to destroy the supplies. An internal USAID memo, sent in April, said a large quantity of contraceptives was being kept in warehouses and they should be "immediately transferred to another entity to prevent waste or additional costs".
Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
Safe-haven gold falls as US-Japan trade deal eases some uncertainty
July 23 (Reuters) - Gold prices fell on Wednesday as a U.S.-Japan trade deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump lifted risk appetite, while a rebound in the dollar and Treasury yields added further pressure. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $3,423.08 per ounce, as of 0804 GMT, after hitting its highest point since June 16 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures also slipped 0.2% to $3,435.90. Trump struck a trade deal with Japan that lowered tariffs on auto imports and spared Tokyo punishing new levies on other goods in exchange for a $550 billion package of U.S.-bound investment and loans. "Spot gold is paring some of its gains as the U.S.-Japan trade deal diluted demand for safe havens. The U.S. dollar's slight rebound is also weighing on bullion, though it's only natural that bullion bulls take a breather after the 3-day rally," said Han Tan, chief market analyst at The U.S. dollar index (.DXY), opens new tab edged up 0.1% against its rivals, while benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rebounded from near-two-week lows. Higher bond yields increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion, while a stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for holders of other currencies. U.S. and Chinese officials will meet in Stockholm next week to discuss an extension to the deadline for negotiating a trade deal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. Investors are also focussed on the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting scheduled for July 29-30, with market expectations that rates will be held steady. "Gold would likely need a major dovish signal out of next week's FOMC meeting to bolster its chances for a new record high," Tan said. Elsewhere, spot silver fell 0.3% to $39.18 per ounce, platinum rose 0.6% to $1,450.48 and palladium gained 0.6% to $1,282.76.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump administration asks tiny Pacific nation of Palau to accept migrants deported from US
The Trump administration has requested that the small Pacific nation of Palau accept asylum seekers currently residing in the US, amid a wider push from the US to deport migrants to countries they are not from. Palau, a country of about 18,000 that lies just east of the Philippines, is considering a draft agreement to resettle 'third country nationals' from the US who 'may seek protection and against return to their home country'. The draft agreement does not detail how many individuals may be sent to Palau, nor what the Pacific nation would receive in return. 'Both Parties shall take into account … requests by third country nationals for asylum, refugee protection, or equivalent temporary protection,' the draft agreement, seen by the Guardian, states. 'The Government of the United States of America shall not transfer unaccompanied minors pursuant to this Agreement.' A letter from Palau's president Surangel Whipps Jr regarding the draft agreement and seen by the Guardian, makes clear the proposal is far from final and is subject to further discussion. It also states Palau would have 'full discretion to decide whether or not to accept any individuals.' The request to Palau marks the latest attempt by the Trump administration to remove migrants from within its borders. A supreme court ruling in June paved the way for the US government to remove migrants and transfer them to countries they are not from. Since then, the US has completed the transfer of migrants including South Sudan and Eswatini. According to Doris Meissner, who leads the Migration Policy Institute's US Immigration program and who is a former commissioner of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, the draft agreement with Palau mirrors other Trump administration requests made to 'scores' of other countries for migrant resettlement. 'Because most of the countries are small, far from the US, and not familiar to most Americans, the reason for such actions is primarily to heighten fear within immigrant communities in the US of being sent to distant places where they have no family or other connections,' Meissner said. Unlike the United States, Palau is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, an international treaty which obliges countries to protect people fleeing persecution and which provides a framework on how asylum seekers and refugees should be treated in the country of refuge. Noting this, the draft agreement states that Palau would instead act 'in accordance with its constitution' and its 'underlying humanitarian principles'. Last week Palau's President convened a meeting with the country's national congress and Council of Chiefs to discuss the request. In response to questions on the matter, Palau's Office of the President directed the Guardian to a statement issued after the meeting, stating that leaders 'reiterated their longstanding partnership with the United States' but more information was needed 'before any decision is made'. A spokesperson from the US state department said that it was a 'top priority' to implement 'the Trump Administration's immigration policies'. 'In some cases, we will work with other countries to facilitate the removal from the United States of nationals of third countries who seek asylum or other forms of protection in the United States,' the spokesperson said. 'Ongoing engagement with foreign governments is vital to deterring illegal and mass migration and securing our borders.' Palau holds deep ties with the US under a Compacts of Free Association (Cofa) agreement, which gives the country millions of dollars in budget support and aid. In 2023, Cofa funds accounted for about 30% of Palau's government revenue. This relationship may mean Palau's leaders 'feel pressured to accept this deal,' Camilla Pohle, a Pacific analyst, said. 'The compact provides Palau with a lot of funding as well as programs and services, and there's so much uncertainty under Trump about what kinds of things could end up on the chopping block,' said Pohle, whose position with the US Institute of Peace was recently terminated as a result of cuts made by the Trump administration. 'A deal like this has no material benefit to Palau whatsoever, and if Palau agrees to it, it will be essentially under duress, fearing that if they say no, that there will be some kind of negative repercussion,' she added. Pohle said that coupled with the Trump administration's decision to pull away from its climate commitments – a key priority for Pacific nations – the request would have a long-term impact on geopolitics in the region. 'This kind of policy is doing such damage to the US strategy in the Pacific that China will easily be able to capitalise on it,' Pohle said. 'It's taking what the Trump administration wants while offering almost nothing in return.' This is not the first time the US has asked Palau to accept people. In 2009, Palau agreed to resettle 17 Chinese Muslims held in Guantánamo Bay.
