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The Philippines and the United States have been close trading partners for over a century. The TIFA (Trade and Investment Framework Agreement) was put into action in November 1989, where contracts like the Philippine minimum access obligations implementation of 1998, the intercepting illegal transportation of apparel and textiles contract of 2006, and the customs trade and administration protocol contract of 2010 were signed under.
Facts about the Philippines – U.S. Trade
Aside from being the traditional major foreign investor for the Philippines, America is also the country that trades the most commodities with this nation. In 2011, two-way services and goods that have been exchanged between a Philippine goods exporter and the United States summed up to $22 billion, while imports had a total of $12.1 billion, and exports made $9.9 billion. In that same year, the trade deficit for services and products that came from America was $2.2 billion and U.S. stocks of direct foreign investment in the “Pearl of the Orient” went above $5 billion.
In 2012, the Philippines ranked 33rd in the commodities export market for the U.S. Merchandise that was exported to the Philippines earned $8.1 billion, and this was 4.6% higher than the total of 2001, but lower than the result of 2000 (8.3%).
As far as importing products to America during 2012 is concerned, the Philippines ranked 35th in terms of supplying goods. The United States imported $2.3 billion worth of agricultural products, including branded items such as “Ding Dong Mixed Nuts”, “Growers Peanuts”, various fruit juices and preserved fruit products from “Del Monte”, and “Charantia Ampalaya Tea” from the Philippines.
Analysis on Investments
According to Philippine goods exporter data, the U.S. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) stock in the Philippines during 2011 was worth $5.3 billion. This is a slight decrease from the year before (1.1%). Most of the U.S. FDI that gets documented belongs to the sector of manufacturing. On the other hand, the FDI of the Philippines to America during 2011 was worth $114 million. This was an increase of 10.7% from the past year.
