PH garment exporters hope for zero tariff rate revival in US market     

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The proposed revival of a US trade preference program if passed by the US Congress could increase Philippine exports of hard goods and garments by 5 to 10 percent annually, a local industry leader said.

Robert Young, president of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP), in an interview on Sunday, said the group believes the reauthorization of the US Generalize System of Preferences (GSP) would revive the hard goods sector — comprised of furniture, furnishing and handicraft — as well as the garments industry, which in its heyday in the 1980s was exporting as much as $4 billion yearly.

Those were the days when the Philippines was the world’s number one supplier of those products. 

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Over the years, this number has dwindled due to stiff competition from India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia which offered cheaper products given their lower production costs and government subsidies.

The Philippines now ranks eighth or ninth in hard goods and garments exports, Young said.

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