ARLINGTON, Va. — February 17, 2016 — At the winter meeting of its Board of Directors in Tampa, FL, the American Fiber Manufacturers Association (AFMA) voted to formally support the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. The final TPP text had been signed at a meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, on February 4, 2016, by the United States and eleven other countries.
AFMA’s Board recognized the special care given to fiber producer’s analysis and advice by United States Trade Representative Michael Froman and his team across more than five years of intense and complicated multi-country negotiations. “Inclusion in the final TPP text of the yarn-forward textile rule of origin so critical to U.S. fiber and yarn producers underpins our endorsement” stated AFMA Chairman William McCrary, Jr. at the conclusion of the Association’s Board meeting. He added “. . . this important trade provision is now intact in U.S. free trade agreements with over twenty countries, a consistent outcome that assures an integrity in U.S trade policy so important to America’s manufactured fiber producers, workers, and communities”.
The AFMA Board took note of the recent TPP endorsement by the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). AFMA and its members will continue to work with NCTO in the pursuit of public policies important to the success and prosperity of the entire American textile supply chain.
Posted February 18, 2016
Source: AFMA
