The ASEAN Summit and Philippine trade; medium-term fiscal projections

The ASEAN summit in Malaysia ended on Oct. 28, then the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit in South Korea ended on Nov. 1. Both annual events focused on trade and economic diplomacy. Then therotating ASEAN chairmanship for 2026 was passed from Kuala Lumpur to Manilastarting Jan. Inextyear.

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS, JR.

Also last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released the country’s international merchandise trade statistics for September. In this column, I compare our January-September data for the last three years.

Our merchandise or goods imports have breached $100 billion in January-September this year, and the bulk of that came from China whose share in our total imports has been rising fast, from 23% of total imports in 2023 to 28.6% of total in 2025. The shares of Japan, the US, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Australia are declining.

Our exports have recovered and reached $63 billion. Our main, exports market remains the US, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, and China (see Table 1).

Various surveys show that among ASEAN countries, when it comes to foreign policy the Philippines is the most anti-China and pro-US. But in actual trade, like merchandise imports, Philippine businesses and the public favor China and not the US.