American Textile Action Plan

US textile manufacturers unveiled the eight-part action plan aimed at reviving the industry and renewed their call for tough new import restrictions on cheap textiles from countries such as China and Vietnam. The following are the components of ATMI 2003 Textile Action Plan for Growth:

  1. Doha Round:  The U.S. Government must address in the World Trade Organization Doha Round negotiations the barriers that currently exist in textile and apparel trade.  Specifically, the U.S. should insist that all countries must immediately eliminate their non-tariff barriers to textile and apparel imports.  The U.S. should further insist that the high textile and apparel tariffs imposed by many major exporting nations be reduced to U.S. levels in order to provide real access into those markets. 
  1. Sound Dollar Policy:  The U.S. Government must adopt a sound Dollar policy, allowing the overvalued U.S. dollar to return to more natural and historic levels, and take immediate and strong action against countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan that intentionally manipulate their currencies. A recent study by the Manufacturers Alliance concluded that China currency was 40% undervalued.
  1. No Non-Reciprocal Trade Expansion: The U.S. Government must continue to reject demands of developing countries to change the terms of existing agreements and programs to further increase their access to the U.S. market.  The U.S. must also reject attempts at unilateral trade liberalization such as the expansion of Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs).
  1. China Textile Safeguard: The U.S. Government must immediately institute quotas on certain categories of U.S. imports from China in response to the massive surges of such products from China. 
  1. FTAs, Rules of Origin, Customs Enforcement, Intellectual Property Protection:  The U.S. Government must ensure that all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs):

                 a)                  are based on a strong, enforceable yarn-forward rule of origin, without unwarranted exceptions through tariff preference levels (TPLs);

b)                  contain effective Customs enforcement provisions, including clause for countries that do not enforce the textile rules; and

c)                  fully protect U.S. textile and apparel intellectual property

  1. Vietnam Textile Agreement:    The U.S. Government must quickly negotiate a textile agreement with Vietnam imposing quotas on textile and apparel imports from that country.  Such imports have soared since Vietnam was granted Normal Trade Relations (formerly known as Most Favored Nation) status and are currently increasing at a rate of 50 million square meters a month. 
  1. Industry Not a Bargaining Chip:   The U.S. Government must avoid using the American textile industry as a bargaining chip in the war on terrorism. The cost of this campaign must be equally borne by all Americans, without singling out American textile manufacturers and their workers for trade concessions. 
  1. Effective Customs Enforcement: The U.S. Government should provide for strong and effective Customs enforcement of all textile and apparel trade. The government must crack down on the massive smuggling of Asian textile products using the in-bond system to gain duty-free access to the U.S. market.  The U.S. Government must continue to swiftly and fully explore how to develop so-called Tracer Technology that will allow the Customs Service to ensure that imported goods claiming to be made of U.S. fabric and yarn do indeed contain U.S. components

46,000 Textile Jobs Lost In 2002  

46,000 workers lost their jobs as mills and factories across the US were closed and textile mill shipments fell for the seventh consecutive year to $42.7 billion. The US textile industry employs 425,000 workers.

Imports of yarn, fabric and made-ups jumped 20% in 2002, after a slight fall in 2001 amid a wave of shipments from China, Pakistan, India, South Korea and Taiwan. The only good news was a sharp rise in industry net profit to $1bn from $200 million in the year prior, although that improvement was mainly due to strong gains in the carpet and industrial textiles sectors rather than the fabric and yarn segments.

2005 Quota Fears

US and Caribbean textile chiefs described  the phasing out of quotas in 2005 will deal a "devastating blow" to their industries amid a flood of low-priced clothing and fabric imports from China.

ATMI foresee China dominating the US import market from 2005 with other countries that enjoy preferential trade deals with the US, such as Vietnam, India and Pakistan, forming a second tier.

However, even after the quotas are dropped, the US will be allowed to maintain tariffs averaging 24% on textile products and 9% on apparel products at least until a new global trade deal is agreed.

On the other hand, the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) noted that many of their members have considerable investments in Central America and the Caribbean Basin. The region was rapidly losing ground to Asian countries where there is less red-tape and labour costs are lower.

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