Ever since the Philippines was granted Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) by the European Union (EU) in December 2014, an anticipated boost for garment exports failed to materialise. Receiving GSP+ status meant 6,274 Philippines export products were given duty-free access to the EU market. And while data from the Philippines Statistics Authority shows that overall exports to the EU have seen improvement in 2015, with growth of 6.8 per cent year-on-year, from 2.4 per cent in 2014, it’s not the monumental increase that was predicted.

Meanwhile, the textile experts attribute this to the scheme’s rules of origin – which restrict raw material sourcing from outside the south-east Asian country or its neighbours if it wants the resulting products to be covered by GSP+. As the Philippines have few upstream textile plants, local garment manufacturers rely heavily on foreign yarns for variety, the usage of which is restricted under GSP+.

Indeed, there appears to be only two commercial textile mills left in the Philippines, down from more than 50 in the 1980s. Of the five cited by Philippines news reports in 2015, one has now closed, with two revealing that they make products other than traded fabrics – for instance, souvenirs. Textile production in the country has fallen victim to high electricity bills and workers’ wages being high by regional standards.