Salceda also cited fast fashion brands that solicit used clothing from their customers, either for recycling as rags or reuse.
“There is a niche but increasingly larger retro clothing industry as well. And there seems to be a potential for us to be a sorting ad reexport center for used but good clothing,” Salceda added.
He added that such a repeal will “finally formalize a large but in-the-shadows sector that so many of the rural and urban poor deem to be essential businesses.”
Putting health standards in place, Salceda added, will also reduce the health risks of such imports.
“I would rather that we place DOH standards and allow ukay-ukay businesses to finally register, instead of having such a large underground sector that we just choose to ignore, because it’s big enough to provide jobs, but illegal.”