Attempts by certain importers to amend the rules would open the back door to China and significantly harm investment in the US-CAFTA region and the vibrant textile and apparel co-production chain in the United States and the region, which employs more than a million workers, the lawmakers cautioned.

“The rules of origin governing textile and apparel production and trade under CAFTA-DR have clear benefits and have strengthened our regional supply chains by fostering a stable business environment where American and regional manufacturers can thrive. We strongly urge you to continue following the longstanding CAFTA-DR short supply list process, which requires requestors to submit public petitions for review, and reject requests to circumvent it,” the letter states.

“Bypassing the existing short supply petition and review system could result in non-signatory nations gaining a backdoor entrance to CAFTA-DR benefits. We fear that the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as the dominant global supplier of yarns and fabrics, would be the major winner under this proposal,” they wrote.

“Nearly $2 billion in new textile and apparel investment has gone into the CAFTA-DR region and the co-production chain. This investment is predicated upon the preferential benefits and strong rules in the trade agreement, which forms the basis for a vibrant co-production supply chain in the Western Hemisphere,” said National Council of Textile Organisations (NCTO) president and chief executive officer Kim Glas.

“Weakening this trade agreement’s textile rules through so-called ‘flexibilities’ by expanding the existing short supply list, as certain importers have proposed, would open the door to a flood of cheap Chinese inputs, devastate the existing US and Central American textile and apparel industries and displace hundreds of thousands of workers,” he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)