00:00We are in receipt of the United States' latest reciprocal tariff for the Philippines.
00:07We are concerned that the U.S. has decided to impose a 20% tariff on Philippine exports.
00:15The fact remains, however, that the 20% rate is the second lowest among all reciprocal tariffs that the U.S. has imposed on the region,
00:26the lowest being the 10% of Singapore.
00:30But more importantly than all of this, we remain committed to continuing negotiations with the United States in good faith
00:41to pursue a bilateral comprehensive economic agreement or, if possible, an FTA.
00:51So myself, together with DTI Secretary Chris Roque, and Undersecretary Perry Rodolfo, and Undersecretary Alan Hepti,
01:01will be flying to the United States next week.
01:05This is actually a scheduled trip to the United States even before today's announcement.
01:10So there will be meetings next week amongst the trade representatives ng Amerika po at ng Pilipinas.
01:19And lastly, I just wanted to say that, of course, the economic team, the DTI,
01:27will continue to advance key economic reforms to sustain a competitive and investor-friendly business environment,
01:35and to try to build more trade relationships with other countries all over the world
01:41to create more market opportunities for our business enterprises dito po sa Pilipinas.
02:02You
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