Philippines
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Impacts of tariff war among US, 3 countries to PH, rest of the world still uncertain—Enrile
Impacts of tariff war among US, 3 countries to PH, rest of the world still uncertain—Enrile
While the tariff war among the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China is slowly turning into a potential global situation, its economic impact to the Philippines and the world remains uncertain, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile said.
"The domestically and globalized economic impact of the tariff war among the US, Canada, Mexico, and China is still uncertain," Enrile said in a Facebook post on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
"It is slowly turning into a complex global situation whose outcome cannot not be ascertained right now," he added.
Enrile made the comment amid the looming global impacts of the tariff war involving the four countries as the US has started imposing 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods and planned to put 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, but the latter has been postponed following talks between President Donald Trump and leaders from Canada and Mexico.
The US move is seen to attract retaliatory measures from the three countries.
Enrile underscored that the situation, although it is slowly turning into a complex global situation, is still uncertain as only 12 percent of the US' entire gross domestic product (GDP) is globally generated.
"I say because of the entire GDP of USA, as I understand it, only 12 percent is globally generated. And of that 12 percent, six percent comes from Canada and Mexico. The other six percent comes from the rest of the world," the presidential legal counsel said.
He wondered whether the current tariff situation involving the four countries would lead to the disruption of the USA's economic, political, diplomatic, security, and other relations with other countries.
"The larger question, as I see it, is will such tariff move leads to the disruption of the USA's economic, political, diplomatic, security, and other relations with other countries? Will it usher a policy of US isolationism from the rest of the global community? Will it presage the international condition similar to that which resulted in World War II? Will it trigger the rearming of some countries for self-preservation?" the centenarian public official said.