Rubio: Asean nations to get better tariff deal
The history of the 21st century will be written in Asia, and the United States intends to be part of it, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in Kuala Lumpur during the foreign ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) that ended on Saturday.
“If you look at the demographics of Southeast Asia, this is the youngest part of the world. You’re about to see an enormous growth in the labor pool and in workers,” he said. “We’re excited about what economic cooperation is going to mean in this region, and trade is going to be a key component of it.”
“The history of the 21st century will be written in Asia, given all the dynamics that are happening here economically, and we intend to be a full part of it,” Rubio said after a meeting with Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro and Japan Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi on the sideline of the Asean meeting.
Rubio tried to redirect questions on the United States’ new tariff regime, suggesting that the previous tariff policy was “unfair to American workers and the American economy. And this is an effort to rebalance that at a global scale.”
“Every country in the world is going to get a letter at some point, for the most part, about [US President Donald Trump’s] rebalancing of trade.
“When all is said and done, many of the countries in Southeast Asia are going to have tariff rates that are actually better than countries in other parts of the world, and it could be a benefit. And by the way, the door always remains open to adjustments, if in fact agreements can be reached,” he added.
But Rubio stressed that the Trump administration considers economic and defense partnerships as important and “we’re going to continue to build on them.”
Tripartite agreements
In the trilateral meeting, the three nations agreed to grow their trilateral economic and defense partnership by unlocking private sector investments in high impact infrastructure projects in the Luzon Economic Corridor, the US Department of State said Saturday.
Rubio highlighted the trilateral meeting as he was hounded by questions on the United States’ new tariff regime during his first trip to Asia as state secretary.
“It was excellent,” he told journalists in Kuala Lumpur after the trilateral meeting. “We have a great relationship with Japan and the Philippines, and work very closely with them on the Economic Corridor, on maritime security, and territorial integrity—and continue to build upon that partnership, and look forward to hosting the president of the Philippines in Washington in a few days.”
Malacañang on Friday confirmed that President Marcos’ trip to be United States would be from July 20 to July 22, but deferred other details to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Economic corridor
The Luzon Economic Corridor Rubio mentioned is an infrastructure initiative launched during the three nations’ first trilateral summit in Washington D.C. attended by former US President Joe Biden, former Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Marcos in April 2024.
The corridor involves projects like rail, port modernization, agribusiness, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains that would connect economic hubs such as Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas.
The US state department said the three officials discussed advancing trilateral cooperation in the Philippines on cybersecurity, energy and investments in reliable and secure telecommunications networks.
The officials agreed to hold sectoral trilateral discussions at the senior officials’ level in coming months, the state department added.
Lazaro, for her part, thanked the United States and Japan for being “indispensable partners” in economic and defense cooperation and it promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region. —WITH A REPORT FROM PNA
