Textile and Apparel Industry Repeats Call for Tariff Elimination, Regulatory Coherence in TTIP
The reliance on global supply chains among U.S. and European apparel, textile and footwear manufacturers boosts the need for an ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that will remove more tariff and non-tariff barriers for sourcing and sales in those sectors, said three U.S. and European industry groups in a Sept. 30 position paper. The 7th round of TTIP negotiations are currently underway outside Washington, D.C. The TTIP should include a customs chapter that puts into place uniform facilitation and trusted trader preferences, said the industry associations.
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The agreement should completely eliminate tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic, the paper said. “Textile, leather and clothing products are still among the most protected goods in the EU, the U.S. and elsewhere,” said the paper, written by the American Apparel and Footwear Associations, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the European Branded Clothing Alliance. “In the best-case scenario, TTIP would provide for the full, reciprocal and immediate elimination of duties on apparel, without phase-out periods to reduce costs and barriers that disproportionately affect this industry.” Rules of origin in the agreement should also be “simple and flexible,” the industry leaders said.
Harmonization and simplification of regulatory functions and labeling will also critically improve trade between the U.S. and EU, said the paper. “The number of compulsory labeling requirements affixed to the product should be minimized to allow product-labels to be kept as simple as possible to promote consumer understanding,” said the leaders. “This simplification should include an alignment of the names of textile fibers and care instruction symbols on the basis of ISO standards and eliminate requirements at member state and U.S. state levels for chemicals substance labeling in favor of EU/U.S. federal level requirements.” The two sides should also work to eliminate duplicate product safety testing and create a mutually-recognized list of prohibited or restricted chemicals and other substance in textile and clothing products, the paper added.