New president’s challenge: US bill boosting RP clothing exports

Labor groups expect the next president to personally lobby American lawmakers to pass a bill that would enable the freer entry of Philippine-made garments into the highly lucrative US market.

We are counting on the next Philippine president to move fast so that the US bill, the Save Our Industries (SAVE) Act, may hopefully be enacted before the November mid-term elections in the US.

Although the bill is meant to “save” ailing American textile producers, the bill would also benefit the Philippines’ labor-intensive garments industry in a big way.

Once enacted, the bill will allow Philippine-made garments to enter the US market with considerably fewer restrictions, as long as the clothes use American textiles.

Ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes made in the Philippines using American textiles would enjoy definite advantages such as lower duties, thus making them even more price-competitive when they reach US stores.

This will surely encourage more apparel makers from the US to build new factories here, bring in American textiles, harness skilled Filipino workers to design, cut and sew the garments, and then re-export the RTW clothes back to the US.

Local contract manufacturers for American apparel makers would also benefit. The Philippines already has a solid reputation when it comes to the manufacture of garments meant for American stores, particularly the high-end ones.

There is no way we can lose with the enactment of the SAVE bill.

ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com –ERNESTO F. HERRERA, Manila Times