ATMI ...
Week of January 13, 2003
Keeps pressure on Washington
WASHINGTON, DC — The American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) wasted little time in the new year calling on lawmakers to pursue actions aimed at benefiting the distressed U.S. textile industry.
On Jan. 2, ATMI Chairman Van May issued a call for Congress and the Bush Administration to support an eight-point “Textile Action Plan for Growth” this year, which he said is needed to ensure the revitalization of the American textile industry.
Saying the U.S. government must honor its promises to make sure that the U.S. textile industry is not traded away and has a fair chance to compete, May called on textile and fiber supporters in Congress to work with ATMI and the White House to support swift action on this plan, which consists of the most urgent of the ideas and positions already advocated by ATMI.
Components of the plan relate to the Doha Round, the strong U.S. dollar, trade expansion, import restrictions for China and Vietnam, free trade agreements, the industry’s being used as a pawn in trade negotiations and effective Customs enforcement.
Specifically:
1) The Doha Round: The U.S. Government must address in the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round negotiations the barriers that currently exist in textile and apparel trade, ATMI wrote in a news release. Specifically, the U.S. should insist that all countries must immediately eliminate their non-tariff barriers to textile and apparel imports, the group said.
“The U.S. should further insist that the high textile and apparel tariffs imposed by many major exporting nations be reduced to U.S. levels in order to provide real access into those markets,” said May, chairman and CEO Of Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, Lubbock, TX. “Only after these objectives are achieved should countries negotiate any further reductions in textile and apparel tariffs.”
The U.S. should also insist that other countries agree to fully protect textile and apparel intellectual property through comprehensive and effective intellectual property laws and regulations designed to protect copyrights, designs and patterns, May added.
2) Sound Dollar Policy: The U.S. Government must adopt a “sound dollar” policy, allowing the overvalued U.S. dollar to return to more natural and historic levels, and take immediate and strong action against countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan that intentionally manipulate their currencies in order to gain a competitive advantage vis-à-vis the United States, ATMI said. A recent study by the Manufacturers Alliance concluded that China’s currency was 40 percent undervalued.
3) No Non-Reciprocal Trade Expansion: The U.S. Government must continue to reject demands of developing countries to change the terms of existing agreements and programs to further increase their access to the U.S. market at the expense of U.S. textile producers, ATMI said. The group added that the U.S. must also reject attempts at unilateral trade liberalization such as the expansion of Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) to include textile and apparel production.
4) China Textile Safeguard: The U.S. Government must immediately institute quotas on certain categories of U.S. imports from China in response to the massive surges of such products from China since those products were integrated into the WTO on Jan. 1, 2002, May urged. The textile safeguard provision of the China WTO accession agreement was specifically designed to make sure that the U.S. could take such action in response to import surges, and ATMI requested the Bush Administration to make use of this provision more than three months ago.
5) FTAs — rules of origin, Customs enforcement, intellectual property protection: The U.S. government, ATMI wrote, must ensure that all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs):
a) are based on a strong, enforceable yarn-forward rule of origin, without unwarranted exceptions through tariff preference levels (TPLs);
b) contain effective Customs enforcement provisions, including a “kick-out” clause for countries that do not enforce the textile rules; and
c) fully protect U.S. textile and apparel intellectual property through comprehensive and effective intellectual property laws and regulations designed to protect U.S. copyrights, designs and patterns.
6) Vietnam Textile Agreement: The U.S. government must quickly negotiate a textile agreement with Vietnam imposing quotas on textile and apparel imports from that country, the institute wrote. Such imports have soared since Vietnam was granted Normal Trade Relations (formerly known as Most Favored Nation) status and are currently increasing at a rate of 50 million square meters a month.
7) Industry Not a Bargaining Chip: The U.S. government, ATMI urged, must avoid using the American textile industry as a bargaining chip in the war on terrorism, including keeping its commitment to the industry not to accelerate or change the WTO textile quota phase-out for any nation or granting additional duty-free benefits for any nation.
The cost of this campaign must be equally borne by all Americans, without singling out American textile manufacturers and their workers for trade concessions. Indeed, as the American textile industry is a critical supplier to the U.S. military, its continued viability is essential to homeland security and must not be sacrificed or ignored, ATMI added.
8) Effective Customs Enforcement: The U.S. Government should provide for strong and effective Customs enforcement of all textile and apparel trade. This should include, but not be limited to:
a) Full Customs Funding — The U.S. must provide full funding for the U.S. Customs Service enforcement personnel and programs authorized by the Trade Act of 2002, the organization wrote. These provisions will be meaningless unless the actual funding is provided for them through the appropriations process, and maintained each year by Congress, ATMI added.
b) Prevention of In-Bond Smuggling — The government must crack down on the massive smuggling of Asian textile products using the in-bond system to gain duty-free access to the U.S. market.
Recently, the U.S. revealed that it was investigating a single instance of smuggling that involved 5,000 containers of textile goods from Asia worth $500 million through the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. “This and other instances must be fully investigated and prosecuted,” ATMI wrote.
c) Development of Customs Tracer Technology — The U.S. Government must continue to swiftly and fully explore how to develop so-called “tracer” technology that will allow the Customs Service to ensure that imported goods claiming to be made of U.S. fabric and yarn do indeed contain U.S. components.
This will require continued support and funding for such research, which is currently being conducted by various offices within the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Agriculture, with support from the Customs Service itself.
d) Provisions to Protect Intellectual Property — The U.S. Government must support efforts to ensure that the Customs Service is able to fully protect U.S. textile and apparel intellectual property through comprehensive and effective intellectual property laws and regulations designed to protect U.S. copyrights, designs and patterns.
Deadline extended
Related to research being done on the textile tracer system at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, TN, the deadline to recommend the “best” marker process has been extended until Jan. 31. The original deadline was Jan. 8.
Dr. Glenn Allgood of ORNL will report his findings and recommendation to James Leonard, deputy assistant secretary for Textiles, Apparel and Consumer Goods Industries in the International Trade Administration at the Department of Commerce.
