Save Act gaining support

The Save Our Industries Act (Save Act), a bill that seeks to expand Philippines-United States trade in the textile and garments sectors, has been refiled in the US Senate and will soon be reintroduced in the US House of Representatives.

Democrat Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, one of the legislators who filed the original bill in 2009, last week refiled the bill in the 112th Congress. Also sponsoring the bill are Republicans Roy Blunt of Montana and Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii.

According to the Philippine Trade and Investment Center, the bill also has a number of sponsors at the House of Representatives, and a counterpart bill should also be refiled soon.

“With the leadership of Senators Inouye and Blunt, we are hopeful that Congress will enact the Save Act in the near future,” Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement posted on the Save Act website.

The Los Angeles County Filipino Employees Association, a group of about 3,000 active members, expressed their support for the Save Act, citing the benefits it would provide to both the Philippine and US garments and textile sectors. The group urged its members to write their legislators, to urge them to pass the Save Act in this Congress.

The Philippine consulate, through Trade Attache Archimedes Gomez, is likewise working to get more organizations—including the 28,000-member United Chamber of Commerce of Southern California, Rotary Club of Historic Filipino Town, and Los Angeles County Fil-Am Public Works and Utility Employees—to support the passage of the Save Act.

The Philippine Consulate also aimed to gather additional 1,500 signatures of Filipino-Americans before the end of July, after earlier getting an initial 1,500 signatures.

The Save Act is expected to provide enough incentives for garments exporters in the Philippines to expand their operations by granting them preferential treatment from the US.

The bill supports the country’s inclusion in the 809 Program, which gave various benefits to US trading partners that produced garments out of US-made fabric or yarn.

Garment manufacturers from Mexico and Caribbean and Andean countries already enjoy preferential treatment, with benefits ranging from lower duties to quota-free and duty-free entry into the US.

Under the 809 component of the bill, US-made fabrics and yarns cut and wholly assembled in the Philippines would qualify to re-enter the US duty-free.—Abigail L. Ho