TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced he made a deal with the Philippines during the country’s leader Ferdinand Marcos’ visit to the White House.
Credit：China Central Television
Trump in his social media post said “we concluded our Trade Deal” following Philippine President Marcos’ “beautiful visit”. Under the deal, the Philippines will open its market and lift all tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., while “the Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff”, according to the post on Trump’s platform Truth Social.
Trump also said in the post that the United States and the Philippines “will work together Militarily,” without elaborating. The Philippine government didn’t confirm the deal.
Trump in the post didn’t disclose whether he and Marcos signed any official documents. His post came after meeting with Marcos in the Oval Office. Earlier Tuesday, Trump ahead of the meeting signaled a trade deal between two countries is near conclusion. “We’re very close to finishing a trade deal. A big trade deal, actually,” he told reporters the Oval Office.
As the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump when he returned the White House this year, Marcos told reporters that the U.S. was the Philippines’ "strongest, closest, most reliable ally". He didn’t make any comments after Trump’s post.
The 19% tariff rate is just shy of the 20% tariff level Trump threatened in his letter to Marcos on July 9, but still higher than the reciprocal tariff of 17% on Philippine imports the president announced in early April.
The 19% tariff rate is the lowest rate among the new reciprocal tariffs effective on August 1 Trump dictating through his letters to heads of more than 20 countries earlier this month. It is the same with Indonesia imports to U.S. will face starting.
Trump on Tuesday said he reached a trade deal with Indonesia that will charge a 19% tariff on the Southeast Asian economy, and stressed the United States exports will be offered unprecedented access. Indonesia thus became the first trading partner receiving the Trump administration’s cut in planned tariffs through trade negotiations by August 1. The 19% tariffs are inevitably lower than the 32% tariffs Trump threatened on July 7.
