The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) strongly condemns the recently concluded trade deal between US President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which opens the Philippine market to US goods tariff-free while imposing a still-onerous 19 percent tariff on Philippine exports.
From the 20 percent tariff hike imposed by the US earlier this year, a mere 1 percent concession has been traded for full Philippine market liberalization and a renewed pledge for military cooperation. This is a lopsided and humiliating agreement, signed while the country is being battered by the effects of Typhoon Crising and the southwest monsoon with millions affected and classrooms submerged.
While the United States retains its leverage through tariffs, the Philippines gives up its policy space entirely. The agreement commits the country to a regime of zero tariffs on US goods, opening the floodgates to a new wave of agricultural dumping, foreign retail invasion, and domestic industry displacement.
Farmers, and workers, and underpaid professionals like teachers and education workers have historically long borne the brunt of neoliberal policies. This so-called deal will only worsen job insecurity, further erode local livelihoods, and gut public revenues—funds that should have gone to rebuilding schools, improving salaries, and supporting communities in crisis.
The timing of this agreement is damning. With the country reeling from natural calamity, the government abandons its own people to secure a deal dictated by Washington. We can expect billions to be pledged for foreign military cooperation and trade facilitation as classrooms remain flooded, thousands of students displaced, and teachers expected to serve as relief workers and unpaid crisis responders.
Furthermore, the planned US ammunition factory in Subic is a dangerous escalation that risks turning the Philippines into a military outpost and target in regional conflict. These military deals, including the expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and the unveiling of the Luzon Economic Corridor, do not safeguard national sovereignty. They only tether the country more tightly to Washington’s geopolitical agenda, with the Armed Forces of the Philippines increasingly weaponized against its own people under the banner of counter-terrorism.
ACT demands the full public disclosure of the trade deal’s terms and negotiations, an immediate stop to tariff reductions and liberalization measures that threaten local industries and agriculture, and increased public spending for disaster response, education, and economic recovery, especially in light of Typhoon Crising and the worsening climate crisis.
Lastly, we urge a foreign policy shift away from US-dictated trade and military arrangements. The country must pursue national industrialization and food security if it is to withstand crises and environmental disasters.