“And since Emperor Donald announced the 1 percent gift already, the SONA highlight is gone, and the show is stolen from today’s magnum opus of a speech”
That Washington trip, by whatever measure, turned out to be a disaster.
First, the timing: our president or his sub-alterns could have made an excuse to postpone the hastily-called “summons” from the White House. The country was reeling from disastrous floods; and there was an all-important SONA forthcoming.
Today’s SONA would define his next three years as president, coming as it does from the embarrassing results of the senatorial sweepstakes for the Alyansa. Now, his own allies in the Alyansa are quarelling for leadership of the chamber that once upon a not-too-distant past was considered “august.”
The end-result is a one-percent reduction from a very recent announcement of 20 percent in export tariffs, while giving the US of A’s machinery, automotive, agricultural exports to our country, among others in a long list, zero tariff.
In April, Trump levied us a 17 percent tariff, for which our economic managers were so deliriously comparing our lower rate compared to Vietnam’s 46 percent and Indonesia’s 32 percent.
But the devil is in the details of the agreements.
America virtually coerced SEA nations to “invest” in the US and purchase Boeing planes, and open their markets to imports of agricultural products from soybeans to pork to poultry and seafood.
Trump had to shore up the manufacturing and agricultural sector of his faltering economy, with BRICS and other countries retaliating against his “imperial” bully tactics by boycotting his exports.
For the “honor” of being the “first” ASEAN leader allowed to visit Trump’s gilded Oval Office, our president managed to reduce the 20 percent to 19 percent, two percentage points higher than the previous 17 percent levy announced on April 2.
For that “honor” and our leader’s effusive praise of our “special relations” with “our only” treaty partner, we were granted a 1 percent consuelo.
And that’s for a trade deficit with the US of only $4.9 billion, just about the same amount that our president’s 2026 budget for those graft-washed flood control projects of P254.3 billion or $4.5 billion.
As if to twist the dagger, Trump called our president a “tough negotiator” who “loves his country very much.”
Yet he told our president that he does not mind if we deal with China, which he intends to visit soon, as Xi Jinping is a good friend.
Xi must be muttering “Beh, buti nga” after watching the White House exchange.
My Washington sources told me that US Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick gave assurances that we could revert the 20 percent to the original 17 percent, which was doable because our trade with the US is so puny compared to Vietnam, which has a trade surplus of $123 billion, and even Indonesia, with a $17.9 billion positive trade balance over the US.
From 20 back to 17 percent would have been trophy enough to preen over at today’s SONA, still 3 percent lower than what Vietnam and Indonesia re-negotiated on basically similar terms without Prabowo Subianto paying obeisance to the “great white father,” and General Secretary To Lam’s phone call to the US president whose predecessors his Ho Chi Minh defeated in 1975.
Yet, despite “special relations,” increased EDCA bases pointing to Taiwan, Balikatan exercises galore, and a munitions factory in Subic (which Gibo Teodoro says will add 200 new jobs), on top of Cerberus’ taking over the decrepit Hanjin shipyard, and, on top of it all, a presidential visit to Emperor Donald, all we get is one percent.
So much for Lutnick and Rubio, and all the efforts of our ambassador Babes, our top economic manager Derick Go and our trade secretary of Kamiseta provenance.
Temu, Shein, and all those Shopee and Lazada products give better discounts.
What happen?
It seems that what Lutnick assured us was vetoed by his Emperor, because that might be an affront to Indonesia, whose 32 percent he dropped to 19 percent, but whose 285 million population is more than twice the Philippines’ 114 million, and could therefore buy more jet planes, automobiles and even beef from the US of A, than us “little brown brothers,” who can ill afford such purchases, nor put up factories in America like the Vietnamese tycoons and leaders have pledged.
What’s so special about special relations?
And since Emperor Donald announced the 1 percent gift already, the SONA highlight is gone, and the show is stolen from today’s magnum opus of a speech.
Back to the dreary drum roll of statistics about how well the economy is growing, or the flood control projects and relief operations, and perhaps a stricter regulation, not an outright ban of online gambling, which neither PAGCOR nor the president’s cronies can afford to let go.
