U.S. and Philippine officials signed a memorandum of understanding Aug. 23 to increase cooperation on reducing the illegal transshipment of textiles and apparel to the United States.
" This MOU will help safeguard and promote legitimate textile trade between our two countries, while stopping illegal textile transshipments," Schwab said in a written statement.
Transshipment involves disguising the origin of textile and apparel exports to the United States by labeling them as from one country when they have actually been manufactured in another. Transshipment is usually done to circumvent import quotas or other trade restrictions. China is currently one of the few countries in the world that still faces U.S. import quotas on its textiles and apparel, and the U.S. textile industry frequently accuses China of transshipping goods to circumvent U.S. quotas.
The agreement, formally titled the MOU to Cooperate on Stopping Illegal Transshipments of Textiles and Apparel, was concluded under the auspices of a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the United States and the Philippines. The MOU provides for customs cooperation, identification of textiles and apparel manufacturers, and joint verification visits to provide the necessary information to stop transshipments, the USTR said.
The Philippines ships 80 percent of its textiles and apparel exports to the United States and the Philippines is the United States' 12th-largest supplier of textiles and apparel, the USTR said. In the year ending June 2006, U.S. textile and apparel imports from the Philippines were up 8.6 percent from the previous year.
Source: NCTO News, August 2006

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