THE late Ka Blas Ople used to describe the totality of the Philippine-US relationship in a single sentence: chief armorer, main trading partner and dominant cultural mentor. The middle, main trading partner is no longer true, but even with that diminished trade role, the US still is one of our major trading partners.

Our trade with the US, and the trade of the broader world with the world's biggest economy, will surely be upended in a dramatic way after Donald Trump's return to Washington, D.C., next year. His main economic plank is the imposition of a 60 percent tariff on all goods imported from China and anywhere from 10 to 20 percent on goods coming from other countries. He calls tariff "the most beautiful word in the dictionary."

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