US President Donald Trump has welcomed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to the White House, saying the two countries are close to finalising a trade agreement.
“We’re going to talk about trade today and we are very close to finishing a trade deal, a big trade deal actually,” Trump told reporters at the start of his meeting with the Philippine leader.
Trump has already struck trade deals with two regional partners of the Philippines – Vietnam and Indonesia.
The United States had a deficit of nearly $US5 billion ($A7.7 billion) with the Philippines last year on bilateral goods trade of $US23.5 billion.
Trump this month raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on Philippine imports to 20 per cent, from 17 per cent threatened in April.
Trump said the two countries did “a lot of business” with each other, saying he was surprised to see what he called “very big numbers” that would only grow under a trade agreement.
Gregory Poling, from the Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Marcos might be able to do better than Vietnam, with its agreement of a 20 per cent baseline tariff on its goods, and Indonesia at 19 per cent.
Trump underscored the importance of the US-Philippine military relationship.
“They’re a very important nation militarily and we’ve had some great drills lately,” he said.
Marcos, who arrived in Washington DC on Sunday, went to the Pentagon on Monday for talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and later met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
During his trip, he will also meet US business leaders investing in the Philippines.
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