The governors of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina the four largest
textile-producing states have sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging the administration
to take immediate action to alleviate the crisis facing the U.S. textile industry.The governors
noted that President Bush has provided assistance to the domestic steel industry and requested that
a similar effort be made to help the U.S. textile industry. Approximately 56,000 domestic textile
jobs 10 percent of the workforce have been lost in the last 12 months.American Textile
Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) President, Charles A. Hayes, commented: We appreciate [the
governors] call for President Bush to similarly recognize the urgency of this situation and to make
maximum use of his powers under existing law to confront the problems caused by foreign unfair
trade practices.Our industry contributes over $70 billion to the national economy, and employs
nearly one-half million people. These individuals need their President to go to bat for them.We
[ATMI] join the governors of these states in urging President Bush to make immediate use of all the
weapons in his arsenal to fight unfair trade practices and to prohibit the importation of goods
made with child labor. We further support the governors call for the president to instruct his
negotiators not to negotiate any new trade pacts that will lead to more job losses in the U.S.
textile industry.
September 2001
