Companies found it harder to conduct business activities in 2025, according to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Published on Thursday, the survey covered 799 executives across 81 economies using a McKinsey global survey panel. Results showed that 43 percent of respondents said doing business had become more difficult compared with 2024.
Executives attributed the increased difficulty to a deterioration in global cooperation on key issues including trade, climate, technology, and security. Nearly four in ten respondents said growing barriers to trade, talent mobility, and cross-border capital flows had made business operations more challenging, driven largely by tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration.
US tariff announcements
“Undeniably, a series of US tariff announcements in 2025 raised questions about the future of trade,” the WEF said in its Global Cooperation Barometer 2026 report.
In April, Trump announced a wave of tariffs against US trading partners in line with his broader “America First” policy, testing global supply chains.
“2 April 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump said. “Trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem. They are a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life.”
A shock to exporters
The Philippines was among the countries subjected to a specified reciprocal tariff. Philippine reports at the time cited an initial rate of about 17 percent on Philippine exports to the United States — significantly higher than pre-executive order levels and a shock for exporters.
Prior to the new tariff regime, Philippine exports to the US faced an average duty of around 6 to 7 percent. Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro, however, described the potential impact of the tariffs on Philippine products as “very minimal.”
“We believe in the good relationship of the US-Philippines alliance so the imposition of the 17 percent was probably a result of a study of the US government; we are accepting it and whatever will be its impact, we have to respond to it appropriately,” Castro said.
Philippine officials subsequently engaged US counterparts to mitigate the impact on priority export sectors such as semiconductors and agricultural products. On 22 July, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. met Trump at the White House amid threats of raising the tariff rate to 20 percent.
The two sides agreed to set a 19 percent tariff on Philippine exports to the US — slightly lower than the threatened rate — while the Philippines committed to eliminating tariffs on US exports, allowing many American goods to enter the local market at lower prices.