THE United States has been involved for months now in disputes with various nations around the world, all of which affect us in different ways.
When the US and North Korea traded threats of nuclear attack, we had fears that any such war was bound to affect us, first because we are seen as an ally of the US and second, because in any nuclear war, wide areas would be rendered unlivable for decades because of nuclear radiation. In one Korean missile test, a spent missile landed close to our Batanes island.
The ongoing trade war between the US and China has affected worldwide trade as these two nations are the world’s biggest economies today. With China’s exports down, greatly reduced by US tariffs, its industries have had to reduce their imports of raw materials from various other nations, including the Philippines.
The US is now confronting Iran in the Middle East, accusing it of attacking two oil tankers in response to US pressures on various nations to stop trading with Iran. President Trump said the US is prepared to respond to any attack from Iran.
After Iran shot down a US drone over its territory las week, Trump ordered a US attack on Iran which, fortunately, he withdrew at the last moment. For if oil shipments from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are halted by war in the region, that would be a major economic disaster for the whole world, including the Philippines. For the Middle East is today the world’s principal source of oil and any disruption of that supply will send world oil prices zooming upwards.
We recall how inflation – market prices – zoomed in the Philippines last year. The principal cause, our government economic managers then said, was the rise in global oil prices, along with a fall in the value of the Philippine peso, price manipulation by unscrupulous businessmen in Philippine markets, and the P2 tariff on oil imports imposed by the new TRAIN law.
We have since recovered from last year’s long period of high prices. We hope the US-Iran confrontation in the Middle East will not worsen to the point that it will curtail Middle East oil shipments around the world. For that would again send our own local prices zooming upwards, much higher this time than they did last year.
