Posted May 11, 2017

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Four U.S. textile trade associations – the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), the American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA), the Narrow Fabrics Institute (NFI) and the United States Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI) – outlined causes of the $95 billion U.S. trade deficit in textiles and apparel and suggested remedial actions for the Trump administration to boost U.S. production and jobs in joint comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) on May 10.

 

In addition, NCTO’s Upholstery Fabrics Committee (UFC) submitted a separate statement detailing the reasons for the U.S. trade deficit in upholstery fabrics, focusing on the imbalance with China particular.

 

“A trade deficit study like this should have been initiated years ago,” said NCTO President and CEO Auggie Tantillo as he praised President Trump for ordering the review. “If America is to reverse its trade-related red ink and create more jobs, policymakers must have a better understanding of the policies and economic factors responsible for driving production offshore,” Tantillo added.

 

The joint NCTO, AFMA, NFI and USIFI comments as well as the separate UFC statement were submitted in response a notice for public comments issued by the DOC and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) pursuant to Executive Order 13786 signed by President Trump on March 31. The order directed those agencies to prepare an omnibus report on significant trade deficits.  The Federal Register notice for public comments is at 82 FR 16721 and is dated April 5, 2017 (DOC 2017-0003).  

 

NCTO, AFMA, NFI and USIFI also were signatories to comments submitted by the Manufacturers for Trade Enforcement (MTE) to DOC urging the United States to continue to treat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a nonmarket economy (NME) country under U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty law. 

 

“China’s widespread use of nonmarket economic activities is one of the biggest drivers of America’s trade deficit,” Tantillo said.

 

DOC’s notice for the NME comments (ITA-2017-0002) was issued as part of its less-than-fair-value investigation of certain aluminum foil imports from the PRC.

 

For more information about the U.S. textile industry, please consult the 2017 State of the U.S. Textile Industry address delivered by 2016 NCTO Chairman Robert “Rob” H. Chapman III at NCTO’s 14th Annual Meeting in March in Washington, D.C.  Chapman’s speech outlined (1) U.S. textile supply chain economic, employment and trade data; and (2) the 2017 policy priorities of NCTO members. 

 

Source: NCTO