The Philippines, the United States, and Japan have further enhanced their economic cooperation by promoting resiliency amid pressing global trade challenges.

In a related development, American agricultural producers have expressed hopes that Manila and Washington could forge a free trade agreement (FTA) in a bid to boost bilateral goods trade and better compete with other exporters that are enjoying preferential treatment or lower import duties, hence more competitive prices when selling to Filipino consumers with rising incomes.

In an Oct. 25 statement, the US Department of State said senior Filipino, American, and Japanese officials met in Manila for informal trilateral talks aimed at building economic resilience while tackling economic coercion, which usually happens when an economic giant wields its power and exerts pressure or poses threats such that a smaller economy yields to detrimental investment and trade policy concessions.

The Philippine side chaired their discussion, with Board of Investments (BOI) executive director for industry development services Ma. Corazon Halili-Dichosa leading the talks together with Jonathan Fritz, US State Undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment Jose W. Fernandez's chief of staff, as well as Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) director for economic security policy Mochizuki Chihiro.

The BOI is an investment-promotions and tax incentives-granting arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

"The discussion is intended to strengthen close coordination to address economic coercion and build economic resilience based on 'the Joint Vision Statement from the Leaders of Japan, the Philippines, and the United States' issued at the first Japan-US-Philippines Summit this April," the US State Department said.

"The participants shared their concern over and strong opposition to economic coercion and a commitment to building economic resilience. They also affirmed that the three countries intend to cooperate to raise awareness of this issue among the international community and enhance their resilience to and response capabilities to potential economic coercion," it added.

To recall, these three countries had announced they shall jointly develop the Luzon Economic Corridor as the first economic corridor of the G7's Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Luzon Economic Corridor will connect northern Clark and Subic Bay—two former US military bases turned freeport zones—to the southern ports of Manila and Batangas in order to attract more high-impact infrastructure investments into the Philippines.

As the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) sought comments from American industries to determine significant export challenges for its 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, a number of agricultural lobbyists highlighted the need of an FTA between the US and the Philippines to jack up their exports.

"The Philippines has to date been a strong trading partner and NMPF [National Milk Producers Federation] and USDEC [US Dairy Export Council] urge pursuit of an FTA with this country in order to eliminate tariffs on US dairy exports," two dairy industry associations said in an Oct. 17 submission to the USTR.

While the Philippines is a "reliable" export market for US dairy producers, the two groups noted that American exporters "face heightened competition due to the  ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA) that provides better access for Oceania to this critical market than it does to the US," referring to the free-trade deal of the bigger Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping.

The Philippines was the fifth-biggest destination of US dairy products in 2023, worth more than $372 million.

In the case of grains like corn and wheat, the US Grains Council (USGC) cited that upon entering the Philippine market, "corn and sorghum from Southeast Asian countries are levied a preferential tariff of five percent due to the ASEAN FTA (AFTA)."

"In addition, feed wheat (and other grains) from Australia enjoy free-market access through the AANZFTA. The competitiveness of US products in the grain trade is negatively affected by the absence of a US-Philippines FTA," the USGC lamented.

A related concern was raised by the California Citrus Mutual (CCM), which reminded the USTR that "through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, China (the Philippines' largest supplier) had immediate duty-free access for oranges and mandarins, and duty elimination for lemons in 15 years."

RCEP is the world's largest FTA, grouping the 10 ASEAN member-countries plus Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand as well as South Korea.

"Nearly 70 percent of Philippine imports of citrus are from China. California exports of citrus to the Philippines have declined over the past five years, from nearly $5 million in 2018 to $3 million in 2023. January-to-August year-to-date statistics show a further decline of 37 percent in 2024 compared to 2023," CCM noted.

As such, "CCM encourages the US government to seek a reduction or elimination of the Philippines' 10-percent MFN [most-favored nation] tariff on citrus to enable California exporters to compete on a more level-playing field."

In the case of potatoes, the National Potato Council (NPC) told the USTR that "fries from Australia, New Zealand and China all maintain tariff-free fry access to the Philippines under FTAs."

"This preferential access has placed the US at a competitive disadvantage and the US is now losing market share to China, which has greatly increased fry exports to the Philippines," NPC pointed out.

"NPC asks the USTR to pursue any available opportunity to secure tariff reductions in the Philippines for US potato products, with particular importance for frozen fries. NPC would also support a US FTA with the Philippines that achieves this objective," it said.