A report on the “Save our Industries Act” (http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/342819/shorter-garment-export-categories-okayed) describes the potential agreement between the US and Philippines under which poplin cloth, exported from US producers to the Philippines for garment manufacturing, would be granted zero duties when exported back to the US.   The goal is to grow jobs in the US and the Philippines, jobs being lost to China. But the agreement proposed decreases the number of garment categories that will be charged duties from 17 to 9, thus decreasing the lost tax revenue for the US to $ 250 million rather than the original $ 500 million. The tradeoff is potential jobs created in the US and the Philippines.  Should such bilateral supply chain related tax deals be accepted for the apparel supply chain ? Given that overall costs will increase under this tax preference, how will other industries and consumers be affected ? Why should specific fabrics be targeted and not others in the global supply chain ?