China moves toward monopolizing non-quota apparel categories in both US & EU
04 Mar '06
8 min read
Thus to even come close to a majority in Congress today, you must satisfy important employment sectors such as textiles which see themselves as potentially having the most to lose. I say this only to give you a U.S. political context to the sensitive issue with which you are now dealing.
Today we are here to discuss a textile sectoral and what such a sectoral might look like. From the U.S. textile industry's perspective, we can only advise that it had better look good to the developing world. Almost all of the $16 billion the US textile industry exports goes to the developing world. As a result, our fight is your fight, and if you have problems, then we mostly like will have problems as well.
Times have clearly changed. When I started in textiles, ATMI was the 'bad guy”, the big protectionist. I now stand as president of NCTO, a trade association whose industry will stand or fall according to the well being of our customers and colleagues in Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Turkey and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, NCTO is a member of a global trade coalition called GAFTT, the Global Alliance for Fair Trade in Textiles. GAFTT was formed because far sighted industry leaders from around the world saw some dreadful approaching – the threat of worldwide monopolization by a single country - and knew that we all needed to work together if we are to survive. GAFTT now has 90 plus trade associations from over 50 countries around the globe. GAFTT's members export over $175 billion in textiles and clothing a year.
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