The Atlanta-based American Apparel Producers Network (AAPNetwork) is promoting members that locate
production facilities in countries participating in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). AAPNetwork is granting full membership to producers based
totally in those countries, as well as in South America.AAPNetwork provides business-to-business
sourcing information covering the entire apparel production supply chain. Network members comprise
contractors, brokers and agents in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic,
Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Sourcing information is available on
the networks website: www.usawear.org.Since 1994, weve been on-line, showing 60 fields of data on
up to 350 members under 200 different categories of goods, services and suppliers, said Sue C.
Strickland, executive director. This sourcing database was designed over 20 years by the same
American retail industry that uses it daily now.Henry Fransen, director, Honduran Apparel
Association, noted a number of advantages of trading in the CBI region: We are comparable to Asia
in costs; we have greater labor productivity than Asia; the quality of our output is higher; we
enjoy reduced transit times and costs, shorter lead times and greater reorder potential. Production
capacity of current AAPNetwork members is nearly $2.5 billion.
August 2001
