Korean-American manufacturers want to be “Made in America”
ABC-7 was the first to tell viewers about a group of Los Angeles companies looking at possibly moving to El Paso.
But why El Paso?
“We have a lot of options,” said Daejae Kim, who owns Tres Bien, a Korean-American apparel manufacturing company based in Los Angeles. “China or Bangladesh or Mexico or Guatemala. But we are trying to open our factory here, because we want to focus on made in USA. That’s why we came here.”
Several economic issues, including a local minimum wage jumping to 15 dollars by 2020 — has kim and others considering leaving Los Angeles. That very reason though has some in El Paso nervous about jobs like these coming to the area.
With ABC News’s focus on products “Made in America,” ABC-7 found it interesting on a day when General Electric sent 500 jobs offshore, these Korean-American manufacturers were trying to keep two to four thousand jobs in the country.
But are these the kind of jobs people want in El Paso?
“They are very proud of saying these garments are made in USA,” said Brett Preston, who manages a commercial real estate company showing properties to the Korean-American companies. “When I went and met with them in Los Angeles and went through some of the plants and went through their showrooms, these are very passionate American manufacturers. If El Paso doesn’t work, it’s probably going to go offshore.”
However, Preston admitted city leaders are not exactly excited about a possible return to apparel manufacturing.
“I think its muted and that’s disappointing from my end, because I see it as this builds a base,” Preston said.
El Paso was once an apparel manufacturing center with more than 20,000 jobs in that industry. But many of those jobs went to other countries in the mid-1990’s due to cheaper labor.
ABC-7 reached out to the City and Borderplex Alliance about the Korean-American businesses possibly relocating to El Paso, but didn’t hear back from them. So ABC-7 spoke UTEP economics professor Dr. Tom Fullerton.
“There is an experienced apparel manufacturing workforce history here in El Paso,” Fullerton said. “This is a good opportunity and it will create several thousand new jobs if the volume of jobs materializes.”
But Fullerton added: “There’s no need to give away property tax abatements. They are going to save money by moving here.”
Fullerton said the City should welcome all new job opportunities, but added a lower cost of doing business here should be incentive enough for these companies to move.
