Back to the drawing board

FIL C. SIONIL

- By GABRIEL L. SIORIL

Thursday, April 3, or dependon ing where you are, was a "tariffying day" across 185 economies following United States (US) President Trump's imposition of a reciprocal tariff on goods shipped to the US.

While most of the affected economies are still weighing the extent of the economic cost, this early, however, some have actually tagged such policy as "distrumptive." Yes, Virginia, the Philippine marketplace woke up yesterday facing this new and incremental challenge that could dampen the country's economic growth momentum.

Despite the fact that the country is merely a small trading partner with an annualized of 1.89-percent export rate and has been sliding from a prepandemic level of $14.6 billion in 2018 to $13.3 billion in 2023, the secondary effect of the reciprocal tariff is believed to be an additional challenge for business operations.

Machinery, nuclear reactors, vegetables, fruits, food preparations, vegetable fats and oils, rubbers, knit or crocheted articles of apparel, furniture, lightning signs, and prefabricated buildings are just some of the local products we export to the US.