The American Textile Association strongly supports Trump levy 301 tariff on Chinese textiles and garments.

In May 17th, the United States Trade Representative Office (USTR) held a hearing on China’s 301 tariff in Washington, D.C., and the president and CEOAuggieTantillo of the National Textile Association (NCTO) of the United States attended the hearing and testified.

“The US textile industry strongly supports the 301 clause of the Trump administration to punish China’s rampant intellectual property theft.” Auggie Tantillo said at the meeting.
“The US textile industry urges the Trump administration to include textiles and clothing products in retaliatory 301 tariff measures against China.” Tantillo added that China’s predatory, illegal trade operations, including intellectual property theft, have caused millions of losses in American manufacturing jobs, including thousands of jobs in the textile industry.

“China’s leading position in the global textile market is obviously being helped by its rampant theft of intellectual property rights in the United States. From the patent infringement of high performance fibers, yarns and fabrics to the copyright infringement of textile household goods, China has gained a price advantage through flagrant illegal activities. A 301 tariff on China’s textiles and clothing exports will send a late signal to China that these predatory acts will no longer be tolerated. ” Tantillo said.

In addition to Tantillo’s hearing testimony, NCTO, the American Industrial Textile Association (USIFI) and Narrow Fabrics Institute (NFI) submitted a joint statement of up to 24 pages as part of the open comment procedure of the office of the United States trade representative. A statement before USTR said that the public could submit written comments to the trade representative office on the list contents and tax rates by May 11th.
In April 3rd, the office of the United States trade representative published a list of Chinese goods to be imposed on tariffs on the basis of the results of the “301 survey”, involving about $50 billion worth of goods imported from China each year.

NCTO is a trade association headquartered in Washington, D.C., representing textile manufacturers in the United States.
The following are some related data on the textile and apparel industry in the United States in the past two years.

In 2017, the number of employees in the US textile supply chain reached 550500.
In 2017, shipments of textiles and clothing in the United States amounted to $77 billion 900 million.
US exports of fibre, textiles and clothing amounted to US $28 billion 600 million in 2017.
In 2016, total capital expenditures for textile and clothing production amounted to US $2 billion 400 million.

What influences China’s industry will be affected

For a trading power like China and the United States, the outbreak of trade war is not good for both sides. For China, the industry with large exports is the first to bear the brunt of the current export of more products in the United States including mechanical and electrical, clothing, toys and so on, these industries are bound to be greatly affected.
In addition, the United States specifically accused “China is suspected of violating intellectual property rights in the United States and forcing us companies to transfer technology”. As a result, China’s more influential companies in the US, as well as those with American technology companies, may also be directly affected or even investigated.
In fact, the trade friction between the United States and China has never stopped. From 1980 to 2016, the United States launched 262 trade relief surveys on Chinese products, involving a total of 28 billion 220 million US dollars, averaging at least 7 per year. According to the statistics of the United States International Trade Commission, by the end of March 2017, there are 110 anti-dumping duties on Chinese products and 43 countervailing duties, with a total of 153.
From the industry perspective, China’s textile and garment industry is also facing severe trade friction in the first half of this year. According to statistics, in the first half of the year, China’s products suffered from 37 cases of trade relief investigation from 15 countries and regions, including 28 anti-dumping cases, 4 countervailing measures, 5 safeguard measures and a total amount of $5 billion 300 million. From the perspective of country, 12 cases were registered in India, and 11 in the United States, ranking the top two.

In recent years, most of the countries in the field of textile and clothing are concentrated in the developing countries. However, in the first half of this year, the US cases reproduced in the United States. This new trend needs our government departments and related enterprises to attach great importance to it. In June of this year, the United States launched a double counter survey on my polyester staple. It was once again 6 years later on the investigation of the textile and garment industry. The trend behind the development of the textile and garment industry is worth paying attention to. Among them, the anti-dumping investigation is targeted at China, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan, China. Countervailing investigations are directed against China and India. The dumping investigation period is from October 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017; the subsidy survey period is 2016. In 2016, the total exports of products to the US amounted to about US $80 million.