APPAREL BLOC PROTESTS TEXTILE LETTER

APPAREL BLOC PROTESTS TEXTILE LETTER    The heads of four major apparel trade associations have written a letter urging President Bush to reject recent assertions made by the governors of four textile-producing states that new measures are necessary to assist the domestic textile industry.
   The governors were Ray E. Barnes of Georgia, Jim Hodges of South Carolina, Mike Easley of North Carolina, and Don Siegelman of Alabama.
   “As customers of the domestic textile industry, we understand that they are facing rough times. We are facing tough times as well. The continuing demand by the American consumer for high quality yet affordable clothing has depressed retail prices in our industry for the past 10 years,” the letter from the apparel associations said.
   “U.S. apparel and retailer interests are competing on a global scale. Whether they realize it or not, U.S. textile interests are engaged in such competition as well. Additional protections will do nothing to help them survive, and would end up harming our partnerships,” the letter noted.
   “The governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama had every right to ask the president for more federal help. They would have done that if a hurricane hit, and in a sense, that’s what is happening to our domestic textile trade, which is facing disastrous times,” said Carlos Moore, executive director of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute.
   “It serves no useful purpose if the textile companies hide behind new protectionist barriers. All they will do is take themselves out of the game,” said Kevin Burke, president and chief operating officer of the American Apparel and Footwear Association.
   The letter urging no further protections was signed by Burke; Robert Verdisco, president of the International Mass Retail Association; Tracy Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation, and Laura E. Jones, executive director of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel.