'Durian! Durian!' Cry the Chinese

LAST year, 2021, China edged out the United States as the No. 1 trading partner of the Philippines. It was no big surprise. For nearly a decade already, China has been the largest trading partner of the Asean region and a few years after the Asean was the leading trading partner of China. The Philippines in this respect has thus actually been a late bloomer. (Blame the enduring stranglehold of American colonization on the Philippine economy?)

How this all came about may be traced largely to Asean and China entering into the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, which resulted in the Asean-China Free Trade Area rolling out in 2010. Trade between them expanded rapidly as tariffs were lowered and investments liberalized between them.