MANILA – Some $50 million in export orders to the US have been cancelled since President Rodrigo Duterte started talking tough against Washington, the country’s main electronics exporting group said.

The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (SEIPI) is seeking an audience with the President to help assure its American partners that the Philippines is “open for business,” the group’s president, Dan Lachica said.

“There are some hints of cancellations but we’re doing our best to do damage control,” Lachica told ANC.

The electronics industry employs nearly three million people and its $29-billion in revenues eclipse remittances from overseas Filipinos.

The industry is also bracing for the possible impact of a Donald Trump presidency in the US. Trump’s protectionist policies have been feared to affect trade and outsourcing.

“These types of decisions, building factories, these are strategic goals that are done over a period of years, if the rhetoric actually becomes policy that is when you will see the effect,” said SEIPI chairman Arthur Tan.