US congress action on de minimis must not lead to half-measures: NCTO

In a statement, NCTO president and chief executive officer Kim Glas said this congressional action must not result in half-measures that do not adequately address the complex aspects of this multifaceted issue and the many unique challenges it poses.

“Doing so risks leaving the door open to further abuse, as we know that China will continue to exploit any available means to destroy American industries and our social fabric,” he said.

The Committee has highlighted China’s systematic abuse of US trade laws to put American manufacturers and workers out of business and support its ‘forced labour regime’ in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under the current US de minimis law.

NCTO, which has long called for aggressive de minimis reforms, believes that the bill as introduced needs to be strengthened to comprehensively and effectively restructure this extremely flawed tariff waiver mechanism, Glas said.

“Specifically, we do not believe the bill goes far enough in restricting China’s enormous privileges under de minimis. In addition, we strongly believe the bill, at the very least, should preclude de minimis treatment for trade-sensitive sectors, such as textiles and apparel, which according to US Customs and Border Protection accounts for a full 50 per cent of all de minimis entries,” he said.

The US textile industry has shuttered 14 manufacturing plants in the past few months, citing the overwhelming and growing flow of direct-to-consumer, duty-free fast fashion products from Chinese e-commerce retailers like Shein and Temu as a major contributing factor, his statement read. 

“China’s abuse of the de minimis loophole impacts not only American workers and consumers but has also displaced over 100,000 textile and apparel workers throughout the Western Hemisphere, where our free trade partners are forced to compete with China’s unfair de minimis access,” he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)