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Proposal To Revitalize Textile Industry |
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2003-10-9
Importers and retailers extended an olive branch recently with a
proposal on how to revitalize the textile industry. Not surprisingly, the domestic textile industry remained highly critical of certain aspects of the plan although it did praise some of the ideas. The proposal, which the groups have dubbed the Textile Revitalization Act is a response to the Bush administration’s new manufacturing initiative aimed at making the sector more globally competitive and bridging the sharp divide between textile companies and importers and retailers.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association, International Mass Retail Association, National Retail Federation and U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, sent a letter Friday to Grant Aldonas, U.S. undersecretary for international trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce, with their ideas on how to keep the flagging domestic textile industry competitive. Aldonas, who could not be reached for comment Monday,
held a summit in Cancun, Mexico last month, as previously reported, to try to smooth relations between the warring sides and discuss the administration’s Global Supply Chain Initiative, which will focus on the U.S. textile industry.
In the last year alone, domestic textile jobs have declined by 47,700 to 437,100. Employment will be a key campaign issue for President Bush next year during the presidential election and key Republican textile state lawmakers are pressing the administration for textile help. In the short term, the four groups called for the elimination of duties on all imports manufactured from U.S. cotton, yarn or fabric as well as duty elimination on all capital equipment import purchases and on chemicals and dyes. They also proposed that textile and apparel products manufactured from U.S. fabric will not count against any quota or safeguard imports and called for allowing foreign yarn to be used in the Caribbean programs an idea that many in the domestic industry but not all- strongly oppose.
Their medium-and long-term proposals, the majority of which
domestic groups support, include low-interest rate loans for capital investment, the reduction or elimination of corporate taxes, establishing a capital investment rebate program, and giving an environmental tax credit for environmentally friendly technologies to offset competitor non-regulatory environmental standards.
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