Pass the save our Industries Act

We in the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) are urging President-elect Benigno Aquino 3rd to persuade American lawmakers to pass a bill that seeks to revive the textile and apparel trade between the US and the Philippines, and create thousands of new jobs in both countries.

Mr. Aquino’s powerful fresh mandate puts him in a superb position to influence key US legislators to approve the bill that would allow Philippine-made garments using American fabrics greater access to the US market for men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, worth some $200 billion annually.

In the process, the proposed Save Our Industries Act would rescue the moribund US textile industry.

However, if the US Congress fails to act on the bill, it will expire this December.

The bill is mutually beneficial to the Philippines and the US It will spin thousands of new jobs, both in our labor-intensive garments industry and in America’s textile sector.

At present, garments are already our second-largest export to the US, after semiconductors. Once Capitol Hill enacts the measure, we can count on a greater number of American garment makers to build new or additional factories in Manila, or to expand their existing contract-manufacturing activities here.

They will bring in American textiles, provide gainful employment to thousands of Filipino workers who will design, cut and sew the garments, and then export the ready-to-wear clothes back to the US. They will be driven to do this because once their Philippine-made garments are shipped to America, they will enjoy higher margins not just because of the low cost of production here, but also owing to the reduced if not zero US tariffs.

Many of the American firms are specialty apparel retailers or department stores that produce their own lines of clothing for men, women and children, and some of them already have existing Philippine facilities. We can’t lose when this bill is enacted into law.

ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com