Let US Congress revive bill to support garments industry – Phl

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government will wait for the next US Congress to revive a bill seeking to support the local garments industry, a trade official said.

Trade Undersecretary Ponciano Manalo, Jr. said the government has decided to put aside plans to look for a sponsor and refile the Save Our Industries (SAVE) Act in the current Congress as the US government is preoccupied with both domestic and international issues.

“Remember, in the last few months, they (US) had budget issues, there was deadlock, shutdown, then internationally, they have the Syrian conflict...it seemed like the attention of Congress was focused on US centric issues so I think, we felt, that it is not appropriate pushing that (SAVE Act) when there is a lot of issues on the table. It might not be given attention so we are waiting in fact for this next Congress to be able to identify what we can do,” he said.

The SAVE Act is a measure which seeks duty-free entry of Philippine-made apparel using American fabrics to the US.

The proposed measure, first filed in Washington in 2009, has been seen as the key to save the local garments sector which has been suffering from reduced sales, exports and employment since 2005.

Manalo said pushing for the approval of the bill however, is a complicated process with many other garment producing countries seen to be affected by the measure.

“The SAVE Act was meant to develop more jobs by asking for duty-free access in-bound of inputs to manufacturing garments and outbound of manufactured garments using Philippine labor and that has been of course, difficult to crack because it is a competitive industry across different countries,” he said.

The proposed measure, said Manalo, needs a new sponsor after its primary sponsor Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye passed away in 2012.

The US House and Senate mid-term elections will be held in November this year, while the 114th US Congress will convene in January next year.

Manalo said that while the government will have to wait for the next Congress to push for the SAVE Act, it is hopeful the European Union’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (EU GSP+) will help improve garment exports.

The Philippines submitted its application to the EU GSP+, a scheme which is expected to allow the country to enjoy more tariff reductions for goods entering the bloc, in December.

The EU GSP+ covers 6,274 products which can enter the EU at zero duty.

The Philippines is currently a beneficiary of the regular GSP, which covers 6,209 products, with 2,442 products subject to zero duty and the rest slapped with lower tariffs.

“Hopefully, by the middle of the year, what I learned is they (EU) will be able to get ratification of member-states and then they can implement GSP+. By that time, we will have market access to Europe,” Manalo said.