Marcos economic team to discuss actions amid higher US tariff

FILE: DTI Sec. Cristina Roque. (Photo: DTI Philippines/Facebook)

By Kris Crismundo, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s economic team will meet on April 8 to discuss the government’s action as the United States will implement worldwide reciprocal tariffs on April 9.

The meeting will take place following Malaysia’s call for a unified response among ASEAN member states on Trump’s tariffs.

“We are really going to do that,” Roque told reporters when asked whether the Philippines will join the call of this year’s ASEAN chair.

“Yes, of course, as we all work together as ASEAN.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier said he had telephone discussions with other ASEAN leaders, including Marcos, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Singaporean President Lawrence Wong, and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, to coordinate an ASEAN-wide response to the US reciprocal tariffs.

On the other hand, Vietnam is requesting the US to delay its new tariff imposition while the former also offered to scrap all tariffs on US exports to the Southeast Asian nation.

ASEAN member states will be the one of the hardest hit with Trump’s new tariff order, slapping Cambodia with 49 percent tariff, Laos with 48 percent, Vietnam with 46 percent, Myanmar with 46 percent, Thailand with 36 percent, Indonesia with 32 percent, Malaysia with 24 percent, and the Philippines with 17 percent.

Meanwhile, Roque said she already signified a meeting with her counterpart in the US to discuss ways forward on bilateral trade relations of the two countries.