By Robina Asido

A 100 percent tariff that will be imposed by the United States on foreign semiconductors and electronics will not be too damaging to the Philippine economy.

"If they raise that to 100% and that will include us, then, of course, we will be affected. But insofar as it's the effects on the economy, I don't expect that to be too adverse, because for one, the value added of semiconductors and electronics is actually not that high compared to value added for other exports, like other manufacturing," Economy, Planning, and Development Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters in a press conference on Thursday.

"So in terms of its impact on the economy, it's big in absolute amount, but in terms of the net amount that things contribute in the Philippine economy is not it's not that high, because semiconductors and electronics are very highly dependent on imports as well," he explained.

"If the demand for semiconductors and electronics by countries outside of the US will decline substantially. Of course, the impact on us is not just the less exports the US, but also the less exports of those other countries where we bring our electronics and semiconductors... There's a higher proportion of those exports going to markets other than the US so around the world. But again, I know you have to look at it, and we will certainly look at, run our morals, and see how that will have an impact on us," he added.

Electronics is the Philippines' top export, drawing $3.9 billion in June, or 55.4 percent of the total. The US is the Philippines' top trading partner, with $1.21 billion, or a share of 17.3 percent of total exports, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced his plan to impose a 100 percent tariff raised on foreign-made chips and semiconductors "within the next week or so".

Although Balisacan admitted that the country's semiconductor exports could be affected by the tariff hikes of the US, he stressed that the majority of Philippine exports goes to other countries.

"The second consideration is that while our electronics and semiconductors exports would or could be hit by such changes in tariffs, the big chunk of our exports goes to other countries around 80- 90% of that goes to countries, like China," he said.

"What we should be watching is what would happen to the performance of other countries, like which we trade with as importers or exporters by the change in the environment," he added.DMS