President's Corner

Ninety-five percent of the world’s population lives outside the United States.  Across continents and cultural divides, clothes and shoes are a universal need and an opportunity for the U.S. apparel and footwear industries.  Some of the U.S. apparel and footwear industries’ fastest growing markets are no longer in the United States or Europe, but in China, or India or Brazil.  Never has the need for strong, two-way international trade agreements and access to foreign markets been more crucial to the future of our industry.

Buying and selling clothes and shoes all over the world, today’s U.S. apparel and footwear companies are truly global, diversifying their operations and reaching for new markets.  Often, talk of international trade is a one-sided lament of how much product is imported to the U.S.  The apparel and footwear industries are changing that conversation, as they capitalize on new export and consumer market opportunities.  This shift is benefiting both the U.S. economy – businesses, employees, consumers and families – and U.S. trade country partners.

For example, many may be surprised to learn that the Andean region is a growing and important market for the U.S.   About $250 million worth of U.S. cotton and textiles were exported to the four Andean countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru last year.  The finished products - made with these U.S. yarns, fabrics, fibers, cotton and other textile inputs - are then brought back to the U.S. duty-free under the Andean Trade Promotion Act (ATPA), a trade partnership program between the United States and these Andean countries.

This win-win trade preference agreement stabilizes manufacturing and wholesale employment in all countries involved, while creating import opportunities that deliver a wider variety of goods at more affordable prices for all consumers.  Unfortunately, the ATPA is scheduled to expire at the end of next month, on February 29, effectively closing an important market, upon which U.S. jobs and communities depend.  The current uncertainty created by the imminent expiration of the ATPA program not only impacts the industry, but also contributes to the overall unease of the national economy.  For this reason, the U.S. cotton, textile and apparel industries are rallying for prompt renewal of the ATPA, as well as for permanent, comprehensive and reciprocal legislation such as the recently approved U.S./ Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) and the pending U.S./ Colombia TPA.

Beyond the ATPA regional trade agreement model lays a whole world of international trade opportunities for the apparel and footwear industries – such as those presented by China.  With the world’s largest middle class of 200 million people and growing, China is a burgeoning market of new consumers, even as it remains an important source for affordable and quality footwear, textile and apparel products for U.S. consumers.  The U.S. apparel and footwear industries supported China’s admittance to the World Trade Organization (WTO) not only because of China’s status as a supplier to the U.S. market, but more importantly for the opportunity to use WTO rules to open China to U.S. brands.  The entire U.S. community is working to ensure that China lives up to its commitment in opening up its distribution and retail sectors to U.S. exports, while ensuring that the U.S. market remains open – along WTO principles – to products sourced in China.  Similar efforts continue with respect to other markets around the world – from India and Brazil to Korea and Japan.

The start of 2008 is marked by the anxiety of an unsure economy and fears of a national recession.  U.S. apparel and footwear firms are helping the economy by ensuring the health of the industries through aggressive international sourcing and market opportunities.  Despite this innovative business strategy, there are continuing threats against the industries’ competitiveness as some in Congress believe China and other supplier countries are the enemy.  It is a sentiment beginning to be mimicked in the European Union and elsewhere as well.

Such fear-mongering populist threats harm our industries and imperil our economy.  Now is not the time to restrict or punish trade partners.  Never has the need for trade agreements and partnerships been more necessary and never have they been so contentiously fought on Capitol Hill.  The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) is working diligently to defend and extend the ATPA and other trade programs, and it needs help from the industries it represents.  Visit AAFA on the Issues today to learn more about the many trade agreements impacting the apparel and footwear industries, and their suppliers.   From the AAFA’s Legislative Action Center, visitors can email their members of Congress to demand a timely extension of the ATPA and stress the need for a permanent Andean region trade solution, like the recent U.S./ Peru TPA.  Don’t forget, the ATPA expires February 29, 2008, so email Congress today, to protect the American economy and ensure uninterrupted, two-way international trade with the Andean nations.