US President Donald Trump agreed Tuesday to reduce threatened tariffs on the Philippines , but only by one percentage point, after what he termed a successful meeting with his counterpart Ferdinand Marcos.

Welcoming Marcos to the White House, Trump called him a "very tough negotiator" and said: "We're very close to finishing a trade deal - a big trade deal, actually."

In a social media post shortly afterward, Trump said that while the Philippines would open up completely to US goods, he would still impose a 19 per cent tariff on products from the Southeast Asian country, a major exporter of high-tech items and apparel.

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"It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The Philippines was among two dozen economies confronted by Trump with letters this month warning of 20 per cent tariffs on all goods coming into the United States as of August 1.

The 19 per cent rate is still above the 17 per cent threatened by Trump in April, when he threatened sweeping global tariffs.

The trade rift comes despite increasingly close defence relations between the United States and the Philippines, a former US colony and treaty-bound ally that has seen high tensions with China.

The United States last year, under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, deployed ground-launched missiles in the Philippines.

Washington has also eyed ammunition manufacturing in the Philippines, despite the closure in 1992 of the US naval base at Subic Bay due to heavy public pressure.

"All of what we consider part of the modernization of the Philippine military is really a response to the circumstances that surround the situation in the South China Sea," Marcos said next to Trump.

Trump devoted much of the appearance to attacks on his Democratic predecessors Biden and Barack Obama.

"We are essentially concerned with the defense of our territory and the exercise of our sovereign rights," said Marcos.

"Our strongest, closest, most reliable ally has always been the United States."

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