Appreciating US Government action against China’s ‘unfair trade practices’, the National Council of Textile Organisations (NCTO) has urged for a quick and transparent exclusion process to its intent to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth imports from China from 10 per cent to 25 per cent and include finished apparel and textile items in the retaliatory tariff list. 

“...We remain very concerned that finished Chinese textile home furnishings and apparel are not on the administration’s retaliatory tariff list,” said NCTO president and chief executive officer Kim Glas. 

“Chinese imports of finished goods into the U.S. market have the most significant impact on domestic textile and apparel production, investment and jobs. In order to address the crisis, we need to get to the very heart of the problem,” he said in a statement. 

According to US Government statistics, China predominantly ships end items to the US versus intermediate inputs. Finished apparel, textile home furnishings and other made-up textile goods equate to 93.5 per cent of US imports from China in this sector, while fibre, yarn and fabric imports from China represent only 6.5 per cent. 

“NCTO also remains seriously concerned that some inputs critical to the competitiveness of US textile manufacturers remain on the retaliation list and will now face a 25 per cent tariff. Duty increases on inputs alone, without addressing the growing problem of end products can raise the cost of US textile manufacturers trying to compete with like Chinese products,” Glas said. 

NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers, including artificial and synthetic filament and fibre producers.

Published On : 09-05-2019

Source : Fibre 2 Fashion