Study cites needs for reforms to benefit from US tariffs 

The Philippines can benefit from the imposition of US President Donald Trump's tariffs but reforms must be implemented to take advantage of the opportunities, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

"For smaller economies like the Philippines, the Trump tariffs present a strategic opportunity to attract investments and integrate deeper into reconfigured supply chains but only if the country reforms quickly to offer reliable infrastructure, skilled labor, and industrial policy that would position the Philippines as a trusted tariff-resilient production hub," Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Research Fellow Dr. Rafaelita Aldaba said during a policy forum held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) office in Manila on Monday.

During the forum, Aldaba discussed the results of her recent “Navigating a New Era of Reciprocal Tariffs: Strategic Implications for the Philippines and Selected ASEAN Economies" which highlighted the opportunities that the Philippines may take advantage of.

Aldaba said that compared to its regional peers, the Philippines benefits from a relatively lower reciprocal tariff rate of 17 percent, offering a strategic opening to enhance its export competitiveness, attract reconfigured global supply chains, and amplify its strengths in digital and service-driven industries.

The study noted that the country is well-positioned to capture relocation and supply chain shifts especially in final assembly and testing of electronics, semiconductor packaging and information and communication backend services, production of converters, power supplies, and telecommunication devices, peripheral manufacturing, and select consumer goods such as optical equipment and accessories.

Aldaba, however, cited the need for the Philippines to immediately implement a coordinated set of strategic trade and industrial interventions to safeguard critical sectors while accelerating industrial upgrading.

"We need to align our trade and industrial policy for value upgrading, strengthen our trade defense tools for example anti-dumping, safeguards, and deepen our ASEAN collaboration to buffer geopolitical and tariff volatility," she said.

Aldaba also underscored the need to establish a Trade-Industrial Transformation Council tasked to integrate trade defense, industrial upgrading, and investment promotion.

The Council shall coordinate closely with the Fiscal Incentives Revenue Board to craft and oversee the strategic and targeted deployment of subsidies and fiscal measures, ensuring coherence with national development plans, sectoral competitiveness goals, and the country’s global trade and investment commitments.

The Philippines, led by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque and Special Assistant to the President for Investments and Economic Affairs Secretary Frederick Go, earlier went to the US to negotiate the country’s tariff rate under Trump.

"We were actually able to convince them to talk to us. We had a May 2 meeting with the USTR (United States Trade Representative). The Philippines without hesitation from the US side, as soon as we sent the letter requesting for a meeting, US immediately said yes," DTI-Export Marketing Bureau Director Bianca Pearl Sykimte said.

"It was a very good and productive meeting.”

Amid global trade uncertainties, Sykimte assured that the DTI would support local industries, industrialize and to empower individual firms to be able to compete internationally.