The Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (Conwep) is hopeful of a recovery in 2025 despite posting a 4-percent decline in exports in 2024, Conwep executive director Maritess Jocson-Agoncillo said on Monday, March 31.
But Agoncillo said the recovery this year would be much faster and much higher if talks on a possible sectoral preferential trade arrangement with the United States were pursued.
“The US accounts for 72 percent of our market,” Agoncillo said in a text message on Monday.
“Our projection is to manage to mitigate the decline we experienced in 2024,” added Agoncillo in the same text message.
In a chance interview on March 28 in Makati City, Agoncillo said: “We are hoping we can register a positive performance in 2025, especially if talks on a possible sectoral preferential trade arrangement with the US will be pursued. The recovery will be faster. Without it, we will just sustain it… there is a possibility we will register a positive performance.”
Conwep data shared on Monday showed exports of wearables — apparel, travel goods and footwear — stood at $1.3 billion, down from $1.35 billion in 2023.
Agoncillo revealed that the wearable industry in the Philippines has not been benefiting from the trade war between the US and China and American orders have instead gone to either Vietnam and Cambodia.
“We are not getting it,” she said.
Agoncillo attributed this to two factors: proximity of these countries to China and lower labor costs.
Cambodia alone has registered $9 billion in exports in 2024 and its workforce nears one million, Agoncillo added.
In contrast, the Philippines wearables industry employs 180,000 to 200,000. “Every $1 billion exports generate 200,000 to 250,000 workers because the industry requires very specific skills,” she said.
Agoncillo said Conwep had relayed in a meeting in early March to Secretary Frederick Go of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President for Investments and Economic Affairs, that the Philippines “is getting overshadowed by its competitors.”
She said Go had then responded that the government would work for a possible preferential sectoral trade scheme with the US.
Agoncillo said the Philippines has a more balanced trade with the US, an advantage to the Philippines’ bid to secure a preferential trade scheme with Washington.
Many American companies operating in the Philippines like those engaged in leather goods manufacturing, are pushing for a free trade agreement with the US to bring down prices of their exports, said Jose Manuel Romualdez, ambassador to the US of the Philippines, in a Feb. 12, 2025 report of the Malaya Business Insight.
Data from Conwep show that the labor cost in the Philippines averages $1.16 per hour compared to 74 to 84 US cents in Vietnam and $1.09 in Cambodia
By category, apparel exports in 2024 dipped to $661.75 million, a 4 percent decline from $705.63 million in 2023.
Travel goods like bags also declined 4 percent to $546.62 million in 2024, from $566.5 million in 2023.
On the bright side, footwear exports amounted to $90.51 million in 2024, up 11 percent from $81.5 million in 2023
