The Philippines may lose up to 36,000 travel goods jobs to China if the United States denies the country’s request to include this sector in the generalized system of preferences (GSP).

The Philippines produced approximately 12 million pieces of travel goods a year. About 6000 workers produce two million pieces a year, which means approximately 36,000 workers are employed by the industry producing for 28 lines covering the travel and luggage goods sector.

The country has been lobbying for inclusion of travel goods under the GSP. An inclusion does not only mean that travel goods manufactured in the Philippines can be exported to the US at zero duty.

This move could also readily hike Philippine exports by as much as 700 million dollars, generate some 70,000 additional jobs for related industries, including garments, and could grow the local economy by nearly 0.5 per cent.

The United States is the country’s top export market. Philippines feels the GSP status to the ravel goods sector will realize the goal of promoting economic development at the grassroots level. Not granting the GSP status would destabilize the existing travel goods industries and cause real economic damage to the Philippine industry and workers.