We received a large number of emails and messages expressing their overwhelming satisfaction at the outcome of the official visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Washington, DC – described as “remarkable” and “a standout” by Center for Strategic and International Studies president John Hamre, pointing out the President brought a “new dynamism” to the relationship between the Philippines and the United States.
Aside from engagements with key US Cabinet officials on the various aspects of our bilateral relations, we also had several discussions centering on economic trade and investment.
Together with our economic team, all of us at the Philippine embassy in Washington, DC and our friends from the American Chamber of Commerce as well as the US-ASEAN Business Council are all gearing up for the “follow through,” as instructed by President Marcos, on the many areas of cooperation that have been identified which, in the words of the President, “will help advance our key priorities with respect to agriculture and food security, promoting energy security as we transition to clean energy and boost trade and build resilience of our supply chains, enhancing connectivity and digitalization, also climate change mitigation and adaptation.”
His meetings with key business organizations as well as top American companies have been very promising and productive, judging from commitments that have been made such as the $1.3 billion worth of investments that potentially will create approximately 6,700 new jobs for Filipinos.
The positive reception from American business executives is undoubtedly an offshoot of his meetings with US business groups during his trip to New York in September last year for the 77th United Nations General Assembly, with his schedule arranged in such a way that dinners became business meetings with American executives from various industries and sectors. In fact, his meeting with officials of the New York Stock Exchange and the forum where he was joined by the country’s economic managers became an opportunity to highlight the Philippines as ready for business and a smart investment choice.
There is no doubt the Philippines is poised for an impressive economic growth, with the administration focused on seeing the country achieve upper middle-income status in the next two years. Financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have projected the country’s economic growth at 6 percent this year.
While there may be “various risks and challenges, the economic outlook for the Philippines in the near and medium term remains solid,” assured NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. Another positive news is the increase in the country’s employment rate to 95.3 percent in March, up from the 94.2 percent recorded in the same period in 2022, according to the latest report from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
With the United States still one of our top trading partners, we are certainly looking forward to more foreign direct investments coming from US investors. We are currently preparing for the first-of-its-kind, largest business delegation that President Joe Biden promised to send to the Philippines to be led by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. We are already working on this with our friends at the White House, targeting the third quarter of this year, with a possible follow-up on developments after the delegation’s visit to Manila following the APEC meetings in San Francisco this November.
One of the top priorities we are working on is the renewal of our participation in the United States GSP – the Generalized System of Preferences – the oldest and largest US trade program that provides nonreciprocal duty-free privileges for more than 3,500 products entering the US market from 119 beneficiary countries that include the Philippines.
The country’s eligibility for the GSP expired in December 2020 but the renewal has been delayed for several reasons, among them the pandemic and the previous speakership issue in the US Congress, whose approval for the renewal is required. We have already started meeting with several members of the US Congress for the renewal, and are greatly encouraged by the support of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo regarding our bid for reauthorization of the GSP. Both have expressed such support with other partners in the US Congress. As President Marcos noted, both countries have benefited from the GSP, which could be expanded to cover other products.
We will also be continuing our initiatives for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, although I have to admit that this will be quite challenging since the US is pushing for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to have a wider reach on trade agreements, specifically with ASEAN countries. Nonetheless, we are working on sectoral FTAs which could be more plausible.
During the US official visit, PBBM was very specific on key economic challenges that must be addressed, in particular “food, energy, health security, digital connectivity and the cross-cutting issues of climate change and pandemic preparedness.”
Noting that “economic security is national security” with the latter no longer simply about territorial defense, the President encouraged companies to look to the Philippines as they diversify and reconfigure supply chains. He also urged the US government and the private sector to consider investing in the areas of clean energy, decarbonization agriculture, critical green minerals, telecommunications and health care that offer high potential for growth.
As the President profoundly stated, the real victory was not when he won the elections in May 9 last year by an overwhelming number of votes – the real victory will be towards the end of his term in June 2028 when he would have achieved the ultimate goal of economic wellbeing for every Filipino and uplifted their quality of life.
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