No zero tariff for US agri products after Trump-Marcos meet — Go
Agricultural products, which are considered "sensitive" commodities for the Philippines' agri-fisheries sector, are not included in the zero tariff scheme for American exports entering the country following the recently concluded tariff talks between President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and United States President Donald Trump.
"Rice, sugar, corn, fisheries, pork, chicken – hindi po natin tinanggal ang taripa ng mga iyan (we did not remove the tariffs for those)," Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs of the Philippines Frederick Go said at a Palace briefing on Thursday.
"[These] are not included in the concessions that we gave out," he said.
Early morning on Wednesday (Philippine time), Trump announced a new 19% tariff rate for Philippine goods entering America. This is lower than the 20% announced in a letter earlier this month, but higher than the 17% rate announced last April on what the US president referred to as Liberation Day.
The US chief executive initially said the Philippines is going "open market" with the United States with zero tariffs, while the Philippines would pay a 19% tariff.
Marcos, however, has since clarified that the zero tariffs on US products would only apply to certain markets such as automobiles.
The President also committed to increase imports of soy, wheat, and pharmaceuticals from the US.
Go said the Philippine government considered the type of goods, which the country is a "significant market producer," in the concessions it granted to negotiate a reduction on Trump's reciprocal tariff from 20% to 19% slapped on Philippine exports.
"Talagang binusisi po namin iyan, ng DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), ano iyong mga produktong kailangan nating protektahan, ano iyong mga farmers natin na kailangan nating protektahan; at prinotektahan natin lahat po iyan," the special assistant to the President said.
(Together with the DTI, we really studied carefully which products should be protected… what do our farmers need to protect. We made sure to protect those.)
Automobiles, soy, wheat, pharmaceuticals
On agreeing for zero tariff for American automobiles entering the country, Go said the Philippines is not a major producer of cars "so, by opening the automotive or car sector to the US, wala po tayong sinaktan dito sa atin (so, by opening the automotive or car sector to the US, we are not hurting the local industry)."
With regard to concessions for pharmaceuticals, the investment czar said the main consideration of the government was to lower the price of medicines locally.
"Kapag tariff-free po ang gamot, makakababa po iyan ng presyo ng gamot sa ating bansa (If the medicines are tariff-free, it will help in lower its price in our country)," Go said.
For soy and wheat, Go said the Philippines only produces the commodities at a "very little quantity."
"Iyong mga pinapapasok natin na walang taripa, ang purpose po noon ay ibaba ang presyo ng bilihin sa Pilipinas (Those that enter the country without tariff, the purpose of that is to lower the prices of goods in the Philippines)," he said.
Talks not yet over
Go also clarified that trade negotiations between the US and the Philippines are not yet over.
He echoed Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez's announcement that bilateral talks will take place in Manila "in the next couple of days" to finalize a trade deal between the two nations.
"Our technical working groups will continue to work with their counterparts from America to finalize the details of this arrangement," Go said. — VDV, GMA Integrated News
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