The U.S.Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) Chief Textiles and Apparel Negotiator Katherine White recently toured some North Carolina textile companies to learn more about the industry and the facilities. Six National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) member companies — American & Efird, Parkdale Mills/U.S. Cotton,TSG Finishing, Shuford Yarns, Schneider Mills and Unifi — hosted the newly appointed White, showing off their state-of-the-art facilities.
Later, White participated in a roundtable discussion with textile executives at Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center. Urgent priority issues in Washington were highlighted including: increased Section 301 China tariffs on finished textile and apparel imports; closing the de minimis loophole; expanding the Western Hemisphere coproduction chain and maintaining the yarn forward rule of origin; and supporting domestic supply chains with Buy American and Berry Amendment policies, among other issues.
“We are in an urgent economic situation where these serious issues the industry is facing need to be resolved immediately,” said NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas.“We believe USTR’s development of supply chain resilience policies is a strong step in the right direction for helping secure the U.S. textile supply chain into the future.We look forward to working closely with Katie and Ambassador Katherine Tai to advance policies that bolster our domestic production.”
2024 Quarterly Volume III
