WASHINGTON, D.C, February 5, 2003 -- American textile industry CEOs have concluded a two-day Washington meeting with key Administration and Congressional staff.  The 25-person delegation representing the National Textile Association focused its discussions on international trade issues affecting the U.S. industry.

In the meetings with Administration officials from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce the textile industry representatives emphasized the urgency of Administration action to invoke the China safeguard measure in response to the surge of imports since China's entry into the WTO. Furthermore, they called on the Administration to immediately conclude a bilateral agreement on textile and apparel exports from Vietnam.

The meeting follows a proposal by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to take U.S. tariffs to zero if other countries will agree to do the same. Unlike other major textile industry groups, NTA has, to date, not expressed opposition to the proposal.  "American textile manufacturers are currently at a disadvantage, both with respect to unfair competition in the U.S. markets and the ability to enter foreign markets." said NTA president, Karl Spilhaus, noting that some of our trading partners have textile tariffs as high as 70 or 80%, on top of myriad non-tariff barriers, while U.S. textile tariffs are closer to 10%. "Reciprocal tariff reductions, fairly implemented, with strong comprehensive action against non-tariff barriers, would address a number of key U.S. textile industry concerns," continued Spilhaus, who observed that "on the surface the Bush Administration proposal for reciprocal tariff reduction appears to be a sincere attempt to address current tariff inequities."

NTA notes that, with negotiations commencing for a Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), it is vital, for the survival of the domestic U.S. textile industry that any future trade agreements contain strong and consistent rules of origin for textile and apparel products that require that significant valued-added fabric manufacturing processes take place in the partner countries, not in non-partner third countries.

In meetings with elected officials and staff members from both the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees, NTA presented a textile industry trade policy agenda that included calls for Congress to:

• work with the Bush Administration to ensure that the promises made to the textile industry in December 2001 during the debate over Trade Promotion Authority are completely fulfilled;
• reject future trade legislation and proposed agreements that do not provide reciprocal market access;
• preserve the requirement of U.S. dyeing, printing, and finishing in the CBTPA and ATPDEA, thus keeping the 100,000 jobs in this high value-added area in the U.S.;
• accept no extension or expansion of wool tariff rate quotas which permit massive quantities of foreign wool fabric to enter the U.S. at substantially lower than normal rate of duty;
• protect the Berry Amendment so that our military will have dependable domestic sources for all necessary textile and apparel products;
• expeditiously approve a miscellaneous tariff bill which contains several temporary tariff  suspensions of interest to U.S. textile manufacturers, permits commingling of U.S. and regional fabric under the AGOA regional fabric provision, and implements the wool fabric trust fund;
• press the Administration to expeditiously invoke the China safeguard mechanism; and
• press the Administration to immediately negotiate limits on textile and apparel imports from Vietnam.