Bipartisan Resolution Says Apparel Should Not Be in GSP
Two Democrats and a Republican introduced a resolution that opposes including apparel, textile and footwear products under the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, because of their fears that expanding GSP product eligibility would hurt Caribbean, African and Latin American apparel producers. Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J., posted a press release Oct. 6 saying that keeping apparel out of GSP works to strengthen Western Hemisphere supply chains and confront “a rising China.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
He said, “This legislation makes clear that there is bipartisan opposition to including textile, apparel, and footwear products in the Generalized System of Preferences, as this would be a big win for China and would send jobs out of the United States, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Co-sponsor Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., said, “This legislation underscores the importance of preserving U.S. manufacturing and rejects efforts to expand the Generalized System of Preferences to include footwear, apparel, and textiles in the free trade program, which would directly threaten the more than two million jobs throughout those sectors in Latin America and hundreds of thousands more here in the U.S. It is imperative that we renew the GSP cleanly so that the thousands of American businesses who rely on its carefully crafted preferences receive some clarity on the economic conditions over the coming years.”
The American Apparel and Footwear Association also is arguing for a clean renewal, not adding apparel products beyond the least-developed country list (see 2009170043). But the Heritage Foundation is arguing that apparel should be added for all GSP member countries.
The National Council of Textile Organizations CEO Kim Glas said, “An expansion of GSP for such imported products would put at risk the entire U.S. apparel and textile industry and its workforce -- not to mention its $77 billion in annual output, $30 billion in annual exports and $20 billion in investment over the last decade.” The resolution says the Western Hemisphere trade in textile and apparel products directly supports nearly 70% of U.S. textile and apparel exports and $35 billion in two-way trade. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., also co-sponsored the resolution.
The resolution also said that Indonesia already exports $4.4 billion a year in apparel to the U.S. at most favored nation tariff rates, Cambodia exports $2.7 billion and Pakistan exports $1.5 billion, and that each one of those countries has a bigger market share than the African Growth and Opportunity Act region as a whole.