The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), a US based textile association has recommended imposing Section 301 duties on imports of apparel and finished textile products from China and South and Southeast Asian countries that utilise forced labour in manufacturing.
“The administration now has the opportunity to take meaningful actions in the investigations to revitalize the domestic textile industry and to defend it from unfair, predatory trade practices like forced labour,” NCTO said in a statement.
“The right approach could potentially double industry capacity; the wrong solution will cost US jobs and create irreparable harm,” the trade body added.
Among its other recommendations, NCTO urged USTR to preserve critically important duty-free treatment for USMCA/CAFTA-DR qualified textiles and apparel.
Make necessary reforms to the proposed textile mechanism to support domestic industry growth, while also strengthening customs enforcement.
In response to the textile mechanism proposed by USTR as part of its forced labour investigations, NCTO voiced opposition to the mechanism as it stands and proposed three reforms.
NCTO has sought to exclude raw cotton from the proposed textile mechanism as it rewards offshoring of U.S. yarn, fabric and apparel production and rewards Asia.
Exempt textile manufacturing inputs and machinery not available domestically from additional Section 301 tariffs to enhance U.S. competitiveness.
Incentivize more sourcing of US textiles and apparel from the Western Hemisphere to boost domestic textile manufacturing and reward supply chains without forced labour.
Further, the association urged USTR to adopt an alternative textile and apparel incentive program an developed by textile, apparel, and retail industry groups to support the U.S.-Western Hemisphere textile and apparel supply chain and grow U.S. manufacturing jobs.
“USTR should include an innovative textile proposal that would reward the whole textile and apparel supply chain, including US cotton through a novel program developed by NCTO and brands and retailers to create over 56,000 jobs in the United States,” NCTO stated.
Image courtesy: HKS
