Temporary 10% US tariff for pH products that are now in force, says DTI

Ministry of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary MA. Cristina Roque said that the Philippines now operate under a tariff of 10 percent imposed by the United States, which comes into force for 90 days as part of a wider mutual collective bargaining policy that President Donald Trump announced on April 2, 2025.

Roque spoke on the sidelines of a donation event by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (DTI) and said that she was actively looking for a meeting with her American counterpart to clarify the long-term tariff of the Philippines.

“We are now at 10 percent for 90 days. We asked for a meeting three weeks ago and they confirmed it. We are only waiting for the schedule,” said Roque.

“As soon as we have that, we will definitely talk about it. This is not something we want to keep under lock and key. The Filipino people have to know and all watch this development worldwide.

Roque said that the interest rate of 10 percent temporarily applies to most US trading partners, which follows after the period of 90 days.

“We do not want to speculate whether it is 70 percent or drops to 17 percent. If our Asean neighbor is exposed to higher installments, this could benefit us – but we cannot accept anything if we had the meeting,” she said.

Former DTI Unterstate Secretary Rafaelita Aldaba said that the Philippines were the least affected among Asean countries as part of the new US tariff program.

While many nations are exposed to great increase, the Philippines are subject to relatively modest rate of 17 percent after the temporary period of time, with high-quality exports such as semiconductor and integrated circuit circuits corresponding to 30 percent of Filipino exports to the USA.

Vietnam and Thailand are significantly higher tariffs of up to 46 percent and influence the most important sectors such as electronics, textiles and automotive parts.

“The Philippines are uniquely positioned in order to benefit from this changing trade landscape,” said Aldaba and quoted the country’s young and qualified workforce, the expansion of innovation ecosystems and the strategic situation as a potential award for the move of supply chains.

Roque said that the government worked closely with other agencies during the waiting time of the last results in order to refine the position of the Philippines and to examine possible exceptions from the tariff regime.

“We crunch numbers, constantly meet and prepare our case. The goal is to secure the best conditions for our exporters,” she said.

The DTI donated high-performance laptops to the Ministry of Education (Deped) on Tuesday to support the integration of the AI ​​infrastructure into the education system.

The laptops bought under the Tatak Pinoy strategy of the DTI are equipped for advanced AI and data analysis applications and present the cooperation between the agencies to promote educational technology.