WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on social media that he had reached a trade deal with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ahead of Trump’s self-imposed Aug. 1 tariff deadline.
“The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs. The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff. In addition, we will work together Militarily,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in which he called Marcos a “good, and tough, negotiator.”
Trump had previously threatened to levy a 20% tariff on goods from the Philippines. A request for comment about the deal from the Philippine Presidential Communications Office was not immediately returned. Marcos did not comment on the deal after leaving the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
He also formally announced on social media a trade framework with Indonesia, placing a 19% tax on goods imported from that nation.
Indonesia would charge no tariffs on 99% of its trade with the United States and drop its non-tariff barriers such as taxing internet traffic and removing pre-shipment inspections of U.S. goods, said a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the terms under the condition of anonymity. The official said the deal with Indonesia would be worth $50 billion.
The U.S. president had previously released top-line details of the framework, but his Truth Social post on Tuesday provided more context.
Speaking to the press alongside Marcos, Trump also hinted that he would “probably” visit China in the “not too distant future” and did not seem to rule out meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have a lot of meetings possible. President Xi has invited me to China, and we'll probably be doing that in the not too distant future, a little bit out, but not too distant. I've been invited by a lot of people, and we'll make those decisions pretty soon,” Trump responded when asked if he planned to travel to Beijing in September and if a meeting was possible between Trump and Putin, without elaborating.
The question appeared to allude to a Sept. 3 ceremony in Beijing commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, which Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to attend.
"We are preparing for a trip to Beijing. It is indeed on the agenda of the head of state. But we have not heard that President Trump is going to Beijing as well," a Kremlin spokesperson said Monday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Since arriving in the United States, the Philippine president has met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday.
On Tuesday, Marcos was asked about striking a balance between his country’s relationships with the U.S. and China next year once the Philippines assumes the role of chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and he replied that there was no need to balance “because our foreign policy is an independent one."
“Our longest partner has always been the United States, but of course, we are trying to form coalitions, and multilateral relations,” Marcos said.
Trump added that he didn’t mind if the Philippines “got along” with China because the U.S. was “getting along with China very well.”
“I think he has to do what's right for his country. I've always said, you know, make the Philippines great again,” Trump said.
Marcos, whose country is one of the oldest U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific region, spoke warmly of the relationship between their two nations.
“The cultural memory of all Filipinos down to even the school children, is that our strongest, closest, most reliable ally has always been the United States,” he said. “And that is something that we value, that we are grateful for, and that we will continue to foster as we go on with the leadership of President Trump.”
Marcos' three-day visit comes as China has been making increasingly assertive moves in recent months in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the body of water, which serves as a busy shipping passage for global trade.
Last week, the U.S. Navy announced plans to construct two facilities for the repair and maintenance of Philippine military boats in a province facing the South China Sea, where confrontations between the Philippine and Chinese coast guards have flared.
Trump repeats previous exaggerations about terrorism in the Philippines
Trump on Tuesday also recycled exaggerated claims from his first term about the U.S. having saved the Philippines from Islamic State terrorism.
Trump said during his Oval Office meeting with Marcos that the Philippines were “loaded up” with Islamic State and other terrorist groups.
“We cleaned it up,” Trump said, adding, “and now you have a solid country again.”
Trump made similar claims in 2020, vastly overstating then, as now, both the threat IS posed to the Philippines and what the U.S. did about it.
In May 2017, IS-aligned local militants, backed by foreign jihadists who only numbered in the dozens, laid siege to Marawi, a small Islamic city. Philippine troops routed them months later, as U.S. and Australian aircraft helped with surveillance.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.