Reacting to the tariff

It's been a week since Trump's Liberation Day of atrocious tariff increases, which affected all countries including islands whose only population are some penguins.

- BOO CHANCO

We are not really that affected by the Trump tariffs because we don't export much and we were imposed a relatively small tariff. But we could benefit from the exorbitant tariffs being imposed on our tiger economy neighbors like Vietnam.

To her credit, Trade Secretary Cristina Roque recognized the potential gain for the country from the imposition of the new high-level tariffs on our ASEAN neighbors.

"The new tariffs also put the Philippines in a more advantageous position...specifically for certain export products. The task at hand right now for DTI and other government agencies is how to act fast and take advantage of this new development," she said.

NEDA Secretary Arsi Balisacan's reaction was also good and realistic.

"With or without the trade policy changes in the US, maintaining sound macroeconomic fundamentals, improving the ease of doing business, maximizing existing trade agreements and forging new partnerships are still the most important strategies we can pursue..."

For his part, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go is seeing opportunities for the Philippines to take advantage of its relatively lower tariff compared to its neighbors.

All talk. The important missing thing is an action plan. By this time, the DTI Secretary and Secretary Deck Go should have been meeting with Filipino exporters and devising a program that could be quickly launched to precisely take advantage of the situation. One week has passed and we have yet to hear such a plan of action taking shape.