Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez on Monday raised hopes Manila may get a fair tariff deal with Washington.
Romualdez said the priority of the Marcos government at the moment is to complete the negotiations on the tariff, led by Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Eco-nomic Affairs Frederick Go and Trade Secretary Cristina Roque, then proceed with the talks on a free trade agreement.
“Every country has its own national interest to protect. And in our case, we also would like to see something that would be good for both our countries,” Romualdez said.
“So, hopefully, this would be a positive discussion that we, that our Secretary Go is having right now,” he added in a briefing.
He said whatever the outcome would be “we totally understand the dynamics
of the dis-cussions, because as you know, President Trump has made it clear that the United States is in the process of imposing tariffs which he feels is going to just be fair for the United States.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived in Washington Sunday afternoon (Monday in Manila) for a three-day official visit highlighted with his upcoming meeting with US President Don-ald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Marcos is also meeting several business executives in Washington led by those from the semiconductor industry ahead of his talks with Trump on economic issues such as the 20 percent US tariff on Philippine exports and the furtherance of security and defense coopera-tion between the two countries.
Romuladez said Marcos is expected to meet with several potential investors in the Luzon Corridor, an economic and logistics hub in the Philippines that boasts of a 250-kilometer freight line flagship project that connects the ports of Manila, Subic, Clark and Batangas.
The ambassador said, without elaborating, that potential investors had already signified interests in the project which he described as “a very, very good project … (That) has a very high potential of economic activity that will definitely enhance our economic prosperity.”
“There are a lot of companies lining up… We are very confident that it will bring billions of dollars once completed,” he added.
The US has committed to grant a $3.8-million loan for the Luzon Corridor project. The pro-ject’s design is expected to be completed next year, while construction is scheduled to start in 2027.
Romualdez said Marcos would specifically meet with the president of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), as well as the executives of some companies eyeing expansion of their existing investment in the Philippines.
He did not name any specific company, but said Marcos is also meeting with those who are looking into expanding into or investing in the healthcare industry as well as infrastructure programs in the Philippines such as the Luzon Corridor projects.
“Generally, he’d be talking to the semiconductor industry, which is very important for us. One of our biggest industries that we’re having our economic ties with the United States. So, that’s, I think, the president of the semiconductor association … and then we have other business leaders particularly those who’ve already invested in the Philippines or are plan-ning to expand their investments,” he said.
Go earlier said that semiconductor and electronic products are among the top exports from the Philippines to the US.
These products are not covered by the 20 percent reciprocal tariff imposed by Trump, effec-tive August 1, but there were discussions on whether to keep the semiconductor and elec-tronic products tariff free or to impose taxes, Go added.
