{"id":170108,"date":"2018-07-09T22:37:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T02:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=170108"},"modified":"2018-07-09T22:37:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T02:37:05","slug":"us-china-trade-war-has-some-effect-on-ph-roque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/09\/us-china-trade-war-has-some-effect-on-ph-roque\/","title":{"rendered":"US-China trade war has \u2018some effect\u2019 on PH: Roque"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cI<\/a>
\u201cI know that both DTI and DOF are studying the matter very thoroughly, identifying where we are vulnerable given the kind of export products that we have, assessing if some of our biggest exports to both the U.S. and China will be affected. Take note that the tariff will be for goods originating from China and the United States,\u201d Roque said in a Palace briefing. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The ongoing trade war between the United States and China, which erupted last week, will affect the Philippine economy to some extent, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, said that concerned government agencies including the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Finance (DOF) are studying the matter \u201cthoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that both DTI and DOF are studying the matter very thoroughly, identifying where we are vulnerable given the kind of export products that we have, assessing if some of our biggest exports to both the U.S. and China will be affected. Take note that the tariff will be for goods originating from China and the United States,\u201d Roque said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there are some products that we export to China which in turn are further re-exported to China. So in that sense there will be some effect on us but we are of course studying and preparing for eventualities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Not a knee-jerk reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, said that discussions on the possible free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and the U.S. were not \u201cfast-tracked\u201d as a response to the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really a directive to fast-track. It\u2019s just that it\u2019s something that has always been there. It\u2019s something that we demanded,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, early on, if the U.S. was offering it to countries like Vietnam which at some point was their enemy, why couldn\u2019t they offer the same to us given that we have always been their friend. It\u2019s not a knee-jerk reaction to the trade war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, expressed hope that the World Trade Organization (WTO), which operates a global system of trade rules, would be able to put a “settlement” on the ongoing trade war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping, of course, that the trade regime under the WTO will be made to prevail because all this tariff war actually is subject to arbitration before the WTO dispute settlement procedure,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

DOF Secretary Carlos Domingue earlier said that the government, under the Duterte administration, is committed to promoting \u201copen markets and free trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that the trade spat between the two economic giants \u201cwould benefit the Philippines only in the short term\u201d but would \u201clead to negative repercussions felt by economies across the globe if the feud worsens.\u201d<\/p>\n

PH-US free trade deal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque expressed hope that both the Philippines and the U.S. should be in the position of \u201cequality\u201d if a possible free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries takes place.<\/p>\n

Roque made this remark following the DOF\u2019s announcement that senior Philippine and United States officials have recently discussed the possibility of pursuing an FTA between the two allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be in the position of equality. That we will not just be a market for US goods, that we will also be able to export our goods to the United States,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque, however pointed out that he did not have any details on the discussion between Philippine and US officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t discussed the free trade deal yet so it\u2019s just a possible free trade deal. I know that there\u2019s a possibility that there will be a free trade agreement but I don\u2019t know the details yet,\u201d Roque said in a briefing.<\/p>\n

According to the DOF, the discussions were led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III with Jeffrey Gerrish, the US Deputy Trade Representative for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Industrial Competitiveness.<\/p>\n

The discussions centered on America\u2019s interest in initiating “informal preparatory meetings” with the Philippines on the \u201cscope, timing and process\u201d leading to an FTA between Manila and Washington.<\/p>\n

This comes after an earlier dialogue between Duterte and President Donald Trump in November last year in Manila, where they discussed ways of further strengthening Philippine-U.S. bilateral trade ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The ongoing trade war between the United States and China, which erupted last week, will affect the Philippine economy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":166939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[52991,31449],"class_list":["post-170108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-departments-of-trade-and-industry-dti","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}