The US will levy a 19% tax on imports from the Philippines, US President Donald Trump has announced after meeting with the country’s president at the White House.
Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday that the new tariff was part of a wider pact, in which the Philippines would remove duties on US goods and the two countries would cooperate militarily.
“It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal,” he wrote on social media, offering no further details about the apparent agreement.
The plan, which was not immediately confirmed by the Philippines, would leave the country facing a tax even higher than what Trump had threatened when he first announced sweeping global tariffs in April.
Trump said his goal with instituting tariffs was to push countries to drop policies he saw as unfair to the US. His plans set off a flurry of trade talks with countries around the world.
He has since announced a handful of deals, including with the UK, China and Indonesia. But the agreements so far have kept in place high tariffs, with key issues unresolved or unconfirmed by both parties.
With Trump now threatening a new round of higher duties to go into effect 1 August, some of America’s biggest and most important trade partners, including the European Union and Canada, remain in limbo.
As hopes for a deal dim, officials in Europe are increasingly rallying around plans for potential retaliation.
In Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said that “complex negotiations” were continuing but was noncommittal on the prospect of reaching a deal by Trump’s deadline next week.
“We’ll see,” he told reporters after meeting with premiers in Ontario. “The Americans’ objectives are multiple; they change over time … but what is clear is that the Canadian government will not accept a bad agreement. The objective is not to have an agreement at any cost.”
Trump’s tariff plans sparked widespread financial turmoil when he announced them originally in April, putting forward a plan that would leave the US with its highest duties since the early 1900s.
He subsequently suspended some of the plan’s most aggressive measures, while leaving in place a universal 10% tariff on most goods and separately hitting certain items, such as cars, copper, steel and aluminium, with higher duties.
But in recent weeks, as markets have calmed and the US economy held steady, Trump has returned to plans for higher duties, sending letters to countries outlining plans for new tariffs that he says will go into force on 1 August.
In a letter to leaders in the Philippines this month, he had said he would charge a 20% tariff on the country’s goods. That was up from the 17% rate he had threatened in April.
The Philippines is a relatively small trade partner with the US, sending about $14.2bn worth of goods to the America last year. That included car parts, electric machinery, textiles and coconut oil.
Meanwhile, for companies, the cost of the new tariffs is increasing.
General Motors on Tuesday said tariffs had cost it more than $1bn over three months. That followed an earlier disclosure from rival Stellantis, maker of Jeep, which said the measures had cost it €300m (£259.6m, $349.2m).-BBC
