The US and the Philippines have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate on stopping illegal transshipments of textiles and apparel through the Philippines to the US. This MOU will help safeguard and promote legitimate textile trade between our two countries, while stopping illegal textile transshipments, said US Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab.

The MOU provides for customs cooperation, identification of the actual textiles and apparel manufacturers and joint verification visits to provide the two governments with the information necessary to stop textiles and apparel transshipments.

Previously, the US has concluded MOUs to combat textile and apparel transshipments with Hong Kong and Macau. The country is also negotiating MOUs with Indonesia and Taiwan. Negotiations with Korea and Malaysia on these issues are part of the ongoing negotiations for comprehensive bilateral Free Trade Agreements with these two countries.

The US is the Philippines’ most important textile and apparel market, accounting for 80% of its textile and apparel exports. The Philippines is the 12th biggest textile and apparel supplier for the US in 2005.

Last year, the US imported some US$2 billion of textile and apparel goods from the Philippines, while the US’ merchandise imports from the Philippines was US$9.2 billion. For the trailing 12-month period ended June 2006, total US textile and apparel imports from the Philippines were up 8.6% over the previous year.