“Every country must look after its own national interest over and above any other. We do not”
The US of A, under whose “benevolent protection” one former Filipino leader commended our country, has just announced, via a letter from its transactional and irascible president, that imports to their mighty country, will henceforth be subject to a 20 percent tariff.
That imposed duty would thus allow us now to “participate in the extraordinary economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World,” Trump harrumphed in his letter to our president.
Our president has not reacted, and in his stead, the head of his economic management team who is his lead negotiator with that Number One Market in the World, Frederick Go, explained before palace media that 20 percent is still lower than what was imposed neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand among other ASEAN countries.
In fine, thank God for Trump’s small mercies.
When first the US levied 17 percent on our paltry exports, our trade secretary, Cristina Roque said it gave us a comparative advantage over the same ASEAN economies.
In short, we should thank Trump he only gave us a light spanking. Such incremental thinking.
But wait? Let’s compare our 20 percent tariff, an increase of 3 percent from the earlier announced 17 percent for which our trade officials were so giddily proclaiming as comparative advantage, from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Why Vietnam?
For one, we both have huge populations, ours being 116 million living in 300,000 square kilometers of land, while Vietnam has 101.5, living in 310,000 square kilometers of land.
Thus, we have 14 percent more people while they have about three percent more land, except that most of that is contiguous territory versus our dispersed islands.
But there is some other historic element that should impact on our ties with the biggest economy of the world. And that is, just over 50 years ago, Vietnam and the US were at war against each other, while the Philippines hosted air and naval bases that America used in its war against the “communists” in that country.
In short, we were their allies, and Vietnam was their enemy.
Vietnam won that war and the Americans fled. Due to the rejection by the Philippine Senate of their proposed treaty to renew their stay, they fled from Clark and Subic in 1992.
Now, what trade numbers are we talking about?
Last year, we exported $14.2 billion worth of integrated circuits, copper wires and mostly food manufactures to the US, while we imported $9.3 billion of the raw materials for the same integrated circuits, soybean meal and wheat, plus of course, meat and chicken parts, and other “stateside” foods we crave over.
Our negative balance of trade with the US of $4.9 billion, is not even a drop in their economic bucket.
What about Vietnam, once devastated by American bombs during the sixties and seventies?
Their economy has grown by leaps and bounds, and their exports to the US in 2024 was a whopping $149.6 billion while their imports were as low as $13.1 billion. The favorable balance of trade for Vietnam totaled $136.6 billion, compared to the Philippines’ $4.9 billion. Vietnam beat us by 2,800 percent in favorable trade balance with the US.
Yet Trump has levied us with the same 20 percent tariff for our exports to them.
On the political and military front, we have allowed the Americans a Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999, upped that with an Enhanced Defense Capability Agreement in 2014, allowing them “temporary” strategic basing status in our country, thence increased in 2023 by our current leader to nine places, with four of them verily intended for use in a potential US-China conflict over Taiwan.
We have always treated the Americans with utmost friendship to the point of obeisance, such that we are regarded as “little brown Americans,” less Asian and more Western, always subservient to the mighty US of A, but for that brief shining moment when a now imprisoned Rodrigo Duterte was president.
“Does democracy pay no dividends?” Cory Aquino, flush with the “return of democracy” via a “peaceful people power revolt,” once remarked when the gnomes of the international banking industry controlled by the mighty US of A gave us no relief from the massive debts Marcos Sr. left us after 1986.
Clearly not. Forms of government matter not, whether “socialist” or a “republican democracy” when it comes to hard economic bargaining.
Because every country must look after its own national interest over and above any other. We do not.
So what happens next?
As the street-smart istambays say: “Nganga”!
