Philippines may bag $20 million garment export orders from US

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is expected to receive an additional $20 million worth of garment export orders for US apparel brands, according to the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP).

In an interview with The Star, FOBAP president Robert Young said they recently had a meeting with Newtimes Development Ltd. senior operations director for Hong Kong Phil Williams regarding the orders, particularly for the Ralph Lauren and J. Jill International brands.

Newtimes is the official sourcing office of Ralph Lauren and J.Jill.

“This is definitely a positive development in the apparel industry, translating to job creation and increased dollar revenue for the Philippines government,” Young said.

He said the main agenda of the meeting was Newtimes’ buying expansion of garments and apparel in the Philippines, while also tackling the challenges and its solutions.

According to Newtimes general manager for the Philippines Ding Buendia, the meeting hopes to improve the logistics of garment shipments from the Philippines to the US.

“Currently, we are experiencing a seven to 10-day delay on vessel departures, owing to port utilization management,” Buendia said.

“As pointed out, there is no port congestion and utilization is around 80 percent, thereby providing ample berthing space for feeder vessels,” he added.

The company expressed hope that the management of berthing of feeder vessels be prioritized for exports, so that no export container would be delayed for connection to the mother vessels.

Meanwhile, Newtimes also expressed hope for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and the US to be able to make the country more competitive despite high power and labor costs.

“The Philippines is saddled by high power costs and high labor costs. The major attraction for the country now is that we produce good quality garments. Our manpower are highly trained and skilled. The ability to converse well with customers is a real plus point,” Buendia said.

“We hope that an FTA be pushed, so that despite high power and labor costs, we can better compete,”he said.

In August, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the Philippines is eyeing to pursue an FTA with the United States to expand trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.

“We now wish to pursue a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, which will be a more binding and permanent mechanism to lock in market access preferences and other binding commitments to expand trade and investment opportunities between our two countries,” Pascual said earlier at the general membership meeting of American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (Amcham).

In the same month, however, AmCham executive director Ebb Hinchliffe said an FTA between the two countries may not happen under the first term of the Biden administration, given the US mid-term election scheduled in November.

“Right now everybody’s concerned about China and trade with China, more than they are to trade with the Philippines,” Hinchcliffe told reporters when asked of the implication of the US mid-term elections on trade with the Philippines.