May 2, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. –National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas told the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) today the U.S. must be more deliberate in developing trade and investment policies that support the growth and resilience of the vital domestic textile industry and counter China’s dominance through illegal trade practices.

Glas testified at a USTR hearing held at the U.S. International Trade Commission today as part of the agency’s supply chain review on promoting supply chain resilience. During the hearing, the industry outlined concrete steps the administration and Congress could immediately take to help build a strong, resilient supply chain. 

“We sincerely thank U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai and the USTR team for leading this endeavor. We are particularly grateful to Ambassador Tai for her recent visit to North Carolina and participation in a roundtable with our industry to amplify USTR’s supply chain efforts and ensure broad participation from stakeholders in this critical analysis to bolster domestic resiliency,” Glas said.

“While the domestic textile industry is an integral part of the military and public health industrial base, unchecked foreign predatory trade practices, a lack of effective customs enforcement, and misguided trade policy proposals are creating unstable and unsustainable market dynamics,” Glas said in her testimony. “The confluence of these factors is threatening the future of domestic textile manufacturing as well as the textile cand apparel coproduction chain between U.S. and our Western Hemisphere free trade agreement (FTA) partners responsible for $40 billion in annual two-way trade.”

No fewer than 14 U.S. textile factories have been permanently shuttered in recent months, and an estimated 100,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. and broader hemisphere, she said.

Notably China and other Asian countries compete by “sourcing subsidized textile inputs from China, including those made from slave labor in Xinjiang where 20 percent of global cotton is produced and where synthetics like rayon have been tied to forced labor production” and “a wholesale lack of meaningful labor and environmental standards,” she stated.

“One of the most important actions Congress and the Biden administration can take to counter these illegal trade practices is to close the de minimis loophole. This loophole in U.S. trade law allows 4 million packages a day to enter the U.S. duty free and largely uninspected. Customs and Border Protection reports that textile and apparel goods comprise an estimated half of these entries and China is the largest beneficiary.  These entries are not subject to Section 301 duties and have been linked to Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) violations as well as dangerous and counterfeit goods and illicit drugs like fentanyl and precursors. The administration must use its existing authorities to close this dangerous loophole and Congress must act immediately to pass legislation to completely close it,” Glas noted.

“A textile and apparel enforcement plan released by the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in early April is an important first step to combatting fraud and circumvention of free trade agreement rules and trade laws —  it must be continuous and aggressive with penalties to help deter fraud and illegal trade activities,” Glas said.

To reverse the current downward trajectory in U.S. textile manufacturing and stop the damage to the industry, Glas recommended the following:

• Immediately Close the De Minimis tariff loophole
• Dramatically ramp up and publicize customs enforcement and trade penalty activities
• Preserve and protect the yarn forward rules of origin
• Reject proposals to expand Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) product coverage to textiles or apparel
• Immediately pass the Miscellaneous Tariff bill
• Increase Section 301 penalties on textiles and apparel imports
• Fully implement the Make PPE in America Act and expand procurement opportunities
• Enhance tax incentives to bolster domestic and regional production

“China is being highly strategic and purposeful in their quest for and success in gaining a stranglehold on the global supply of critical products like textiles.  The U.S. must be more deliberate moving forward and not leave this challenge by an increasingly hostile geopolitical rival unanswered.  Absent a course-correction to properly prioritize and bolster domestic manufacturing, the consequences in the next crisis will be severe and manifold,” Glas said.

See a link to the full testimony here.

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NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.

• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 538,067 in 2022.
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $65.8 billion in 2022.
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $34 billion in 2022.
• Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.27 billion in 2021, the last year for which data is available.

CONTACT:

Kristi Ellis

Vice President, Communications

National Council of Textile Organizations

kellis@ncto.org |  202.281.9305

March 11, 2024

WASHINGTON – The rise in U.S. imports from five Asian apparel producing countries with ultra-low cost pricing structures and ties to China must be scrutinized closely to bring about a recalibration of U.S. trade policies and mitigate the damage to the vital domestic textile supply chain, National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas told the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).

Glas testified before the USITC today as part of research the Commission is conducting on the export competitiveness of Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. The findings will be included in a report titled “Apparel: Export Competitiveness of Certain Foreign Suppliers to the United States,” which the Commission will submit to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office.

“While the domestic textile industry is a key contributor to the U.S. economy and critical part of the military and public health industrial base, our sector is facing a crisis of historic proportions as the result of rapidly deteriorating market conditions coupled with unchecked foreign predatory trade practices and diminished customs enforcement activities,” Glas said in her testimony. “Building up to and coinciding with the economic depression that our industry is now facing has been the ascent to top supplier status of the five countries that are the subject of today’s hearing.

“This is no coincidence, and it is imperative to understand and document what makes them so competitive, as well as how this growth has impacted domestic production and the larger Western Hemisphere production chain, to inform the necessary U.S. policy response and recalibration,” she added.

“Unethical cost reduction practices and predatory trade activities plague global textile and apparel production and markets,” Glas said, pointing to the Rana Plaza garment complex disaster in Bangladesh in 2013 that killed over 1,100 people and injured 2,500, as well the most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor released in September 2023, which listed four of the five countries currently under review.

To reverse the current trajectory of this import surge and stop the damage to the U.S. textile industry, Glas recommended the following:

• Reject proposals to expand Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) product coverage to textiles or apparel
• Close the De Minimis tariff loophole
• Dramatically ramp up customs and trade remedy activities
• Address predatory trade behaviors with effective penalties to deter unfair practices

See a link to the full testimony here.

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NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.

• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 538,067 in 2022.
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $65.8 billion in 2022.
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $34 billion in 2022.
• Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.27 billion in 2021, the last year for which data is available.

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CONTACT:

Kristi Ellis

Vice President, Communications

National Council of Textile Organizations

kellis@ncto.org |  202.281.9305

October 19, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Unless Congress and the administration take immediate and aggressive action to step up enforcement against China’s predatory trade practices, the massive surge of imports arriving daily containing apparel made with slave labor, dangerous narcotics, and counterfeits will continue to imperil consumers, ravage our communities, and devastate the vital U.S. manufacturing base.

That is the strong message being delivered by National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas who is testifying at a congressional hearing today on “Exploitation and Enforcement: Evaluating the Department of Homeland Security’s Efforts to Counter Uyghur Forced Labor.”

See her written testimony here and view the livestream of the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Accountability hearing here.

“Chinese cotton products made with forced labor in Xinjiang, in the most abhorrent conditions, are flooding the global marketplace, making their way both directly and indirectly to the U.S.,” Glas said, noting that around 72 percent of all Chinese cotton products contain Xinjiang cotton, leading to forced labor textiles and apparel leaking into supply chains in the U.S. and our free trade agreement regions. “As a result, American textile plants have been forced to idle equipment and lay off workers, while some companies have been put out of business entirely.

“Not only are we failing to stop forced labor trade that Congress explicitly acted to address through the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), but we are rewarding China with duty-free access under the de minimis provision of our trade law.  The de minimis loophole has become a superhighway for illicit goods as a result of ineffective rulemaking and a lack of adequate congressional action and it’s a threat to us all,” Glas said.

Congress should take the following steps to counter these practices:

• Get aggressive on oversight of customs enforcement of UFLPA and require Customs officials to testify regularly. Detail to Congress and the public a robust forward-leaning enforcement plan to crack down on this illegal trade, increase penalties and other deterrent mechanisms, and include measurable benchmarks for enforcement for this sector and beyond.
• Close the de minimis loophole for e-commerce with a legislative fix to address the flood of fentanyl, forced labor goods, and counterfeits and pressure the administration to immediately use its executive authorities to close it. This trade is uncontrollable and impossible to monitor; it makes enforcement of UFLPA impossible.
• Urge the administration to utilize and expand the UFLPA Entity List more robustly as a deterrent. To date, only 27 entities have been placed on the list and all operate within China. Expand the list and include companies outside of China.
• Aggressively step up enforcement, inspections, and penalties to include more testing, including verification visits in our free trade agreement partners, and coordination.

“I want to sincerely thank Subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Ranking Member Glenn Ivey (D-MD) for holding this important oversight hearing,” Glas said.

“Consider this: Billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese apparel coming through the de minimis loophole and tainted by forced labor, is getting VIP treatment on its way straight to our front doors, at the expense of workers and manufacturers in the U.S. and our critical regional supply chains. This is all rewarded by the U.S. government. We must stop China’s forced labor regime and support American companies and workers who are being exploited as a result,” Glas added.

“This is an economic fire, a health fire, and human rights fire — and we need it extinguished immediately. An aggressive enforcement plan, coupled with a set of rational revisions to the outdated and now extremely dangerous de minimis loophole in our trade law would prevent the continuation of this devastation, but Congress and the Executive Branch must decisively act now.”

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NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.

• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 538,067 in 2022.
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $65.8 billion in 2022.
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $34 billion in 2022.
• Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.27 billion in 2021, the last year for which data is available.

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CONTACT:

Kristi Ellis

Vice President, Communications

National Council of Textile Organizations

kellis@ncto.org |  202.684.3091

April 29, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC—National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) President and CEO Kim Glas is testifying today on “Supply Chain Resiliency and the Role of Small Manufacturers” before the Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access at 1:00 p.m. ET.   

In written testimony submitted to the committee, Glas provides an overview of the incredible resiliency of the U.S. textile industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of the ensuing economic crisis, existing options available to small manufacturers to access capital, and policy recommendations to strengthen the entire industry domestic supply chain.

“One silver lining associated with the immense challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis is that it afforded the domestic textile industry an opportunity to demonstrate its enormous resiliency, flexibility, and overall value to the U.S. economy,” Glas says in the testimony. “Despite the fact that there was virtually no [full] U.S. production of textile-based PPE prior to the pandemic, the heroic actions of domestic textile manufacturers resulted in the ability to supply homegrown PPE at the height of the greatest healthcare emergency our country has faced in the past 100 years.”

“As we exit the current crisis, rational federal policies are once again needed to ensure a stable overall environment where small businesses can compete and thrive, and targeted initiatives are required to ensure that domestic supply chains for critical materials, such as PPE, exist in the United States,” Glas notes.

Glas details five key policy recommendations supported by 20 trade associations and labor groups, representing the entire domestic supply chain aimed at strengthening the integrated U.S. textile sector:

• Strengthen Buy American procurement rules
• Provide funding assistance for companies to reconstitute domestic supply chains important to U.S. national and healthcare security
• Key contracting reforms
• Streamline the SBA loan application process
• Provide additional funding for workforce training

Please view the full written testimony by NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas here.

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NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.

• U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 530,000 in 2020.
• The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $64.4 billion in 2020.
• U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $25.4 billion in 2020.
• Capital expenditures for textiles and apparel production totaled $2.38 billion in 2019, the last year for which data is available.

DOWNLOAD RELEASE

Kristi Ellis

Vice President, Communications

National Council of Textile Organizations

kellis@ncto.org  |  202.684.3091