WASHINGTON, DC - The board of directors of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) on Dec. 22 voted unanimously to vigorously oppose the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and urge its defeat in Congress.
"Christmas is a particularly bad time to give away American manufacturing jobs - yet, that is exactly what this administration proposes to do in the CAFTA agreement it just signed," said Jim Chesnutt, ATMI chairman and CEO of National Spinning Company, Washington, NC. "The textile portion of this agreement is loaded with side deals that give away U.S. jobs - one deal gives jobs to manufacturers in China, another encourages retailers to move orders off shore, yet another helps out a single Wall Street investor who has significant operations in Mexico."
According to ATMI, the U.S. government agreed to a large number of loopholes to the yarn-forward rule of origin it had originally proposed for CAFTA. These loopholes will benefit Mexican, Canadian and Asian textile workers at the expense of workers in the United States, the organization added.
During negotiations, the industry proposed an innovative and flexible short-supply process that could have easily brought half a billion square meters of new business to the Central America from the Far East without sacrificing a single U.S. job, ATMI noted.
ATMI's initial analysis showed that, if this agreement goes into effect, U.S. textile mills will be forced to initially close at least 10-15 textile mills and throw thousands of U.S. workers of out their jobs. Final job losses and mill closures could be significantly larger, the institute predicted.
"We had hoped to be able to support a good CAFTA agreement," Chesnutt said. "Our ties to the region go back decades. We offered innovative proposals that would have significantly boosted trade with region without sacrificing a single U.S. manufacturing job.
"Unfortunately, at the 11th hour, this administration demonstrated that it was more interested in getting an agreement, any agreement, rather than saving U.S. manufacturing jobs. As a result, this agreement will only contribute to the continuing decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs, particularly those in the textile industry."
The one thing workers in the Carolinas and other textile-producing states do not need is yet textile manufacturer being forced out of business by yet another bad trade agreement, Chesnutt added.
"The tragedy of the shutdown of Pillowtex earlier this year, with over 7,000 workers losing their jobs, still has not been heard by this administration," he said.
To the 169 members of Congress who sent a letter to President Bush in October asking him not to go this route, Chesnutt said ATMI urges him to defeat CAFTA.
"On this vote, you can either be on the side of your workers or you can be against them," he said. "There is no middle ground. This industry wants no more Pillowtexes and it urges you to defeat this agreement."
Defeating this agreement will be a top priority for the textile industry and its employees this year, Chesnutt added.
"We will energize our workers, conduct trade forums and continue to expand our voter register campaign," he said. "We will seek alliances with labor, environmental, manufacturing and agricultural groups and other interested parties in order to make sure that this agreement is defeated."
