TRADE ASSOCIATIONS ASK FOR NEW TEXTILE POLICY

TRADE ASSOCIATIONS ASK FOR NEW TEXTILE POLICY    Four large retail and import associations have sent letters to five members of President George W. Bush’s cabinet, urging that his administration develop a new textile trade policy.
   The American Apparel and Footwear Association, the International Mass Retail Association, the National Retail Foundation, and the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel co-signed the letters, which went to Secretaries Colin Powell (State), Paul O’Neill (Treasury), Don Evans (Commerce) and Elaine Chao (Labor), as well as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
   The trade groups asked the administration to host a forum “for all of the interests involved” to explore how the United States will actually end the current quota system on textiles and apparel, which is scheduled to terminate at midnight on Dec. 31, 2004.
   “For some 30 years, U.S. textile policy has been guided by an executive order drafted for another era, when there were more than twice the number of U.S. textile and apparel manufacturing jobs as there are today,” the letters said. “The result is that America does not have a current textile policy addressing textile and apparel trade.”
   The letters quoted former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who said after her departure from office that the United States should be attentive to its “Achilles heels, such as textiles.”
   The four associations also said “there is a real need to re-think the role of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements in U.S. trade,” and called for “transparency, public access to CITA decisions and oversight by senior level trade officials.”
   The signers included Larry Martin, president of AAFA; Robert Verdisco, president of IMRA; Tracy Mullin, president of NRF; and Laura E. Jones, executive director of USA-ITA.