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Babauta: Garment industry levels out
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Posted on Jun 23 2005
Gov. Juan N. Babauta expressed optimism that Saipan garment factories will rebound through the end of 2005 and continue to provide needed revenue to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island’s funding needs.
“In meetings with garment industry leaders,” Babauta said, “I’ve learned that almost all factory sewing lines are filled through September, and likely to remain so going into 2006, when non-WTO members exhaust their quotas to the U.S. Factory owners say that U.S. buyers and retailers still count on Saipan as a dependable, steady and quality producer for their consumers.”
The governor pointed out that the two months of less than $2 million in collected user fees—April and May 2005—were attributed to the seasonal ordering low point of 2005, “and we can optimistically expect the rest of this year’s months to improve to $2-plus million in fees paid to the CNMI.”
The U.S. move to restrict and limit entry of Chinese apparel, through WTO-entry safeguard measure implementation, and China’s subsequent move to voluntarily restrain its exports to the U.S. as sensitive to domestic market disruption, aided in temporarily re-securing orders for Saipan’s factories.
“This is certainly better news than what a lot of people were anticipating. But, because the future of the industry remains uncertain, the administration remains committed to providing competitiveness for our factories by seeking U.S. congressional consideration in amending our tariff provisions,” Babauta said.
