China trade dominance and small Philippine exports

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country's international merchandise trade statistics for March. Merchandise trade means goods only — services trade like overseas workers remittances, international tourism revenues, etc. are not included. I compared the numbers with similar periods in 2023 and 2024 and the results are amazing.

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First, our total imports in the first quarter or January-March this year were similar to 2023's level at nearly $32 billion.

Secondly, imports from China are rising by an average of $1 billion/year, the percent share of China is rising, from 21.7% of total imports in 2023 to 27.9% in 2025. If we combine China plus Hong Kong, their share is 29.4% of our total imports which is huge.

Third, the combined share of imports from the US plus Japan plus South Korea is declining, from 22.5% in 2023 to 21.4% in 2025. This implies that Philippine businesses are slowly replacing their Isuzu, Hino, Hyundai, Ford, etc. buses and trucks in favor of Howo, Jac, Sinotruck, Yutong, King Long buses and trucks.

Fourth, the share of ASEAN-5 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) is also declining, from 29.7% in 2023 to 26.9% in 2025 (see Table 1).