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The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) -- a Washington-based trade association representing US textile manufacturers -- has accused five Asian apparel suppliers including Bangladesh of "unfair trade practices".
These countries, particularly Bangladesh, benefit from ultra-low-cost pricing structures and ties to China -- harming the US textile industry, the NCTO alleged in testimony before the US International Trade Commission (USITC) on March 11.
The NCTO also called attention to the rising volume of apparel imports from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, which have become major suppliers to the US.
In the testimony, NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas presented a four-point recommendation package, urging an increase in customs enforcement and trade remedies to curb the import surge and protect the US textile industry.
Ms Glas's testimony came as part of a USITC investigation into the export competitiveness of these five Asian apparel-producing nations.
The investigation, requested by the US Trade Representative (USTR) on December 20, 2023, looks to examine the export competitiveness of these countries. The USITC will submit a report to the USTR's office by August 30 this year.
In a statement, the NCTO called for a close scrutiny of the rising imports from these five Asian countries, citing their ultra-low-cost pricing and ties to China. The NCTO believes this scrutiny is necessary to "recalibrate" US trade policies and mitigate the damage to the US domestic textile supply chain.
"While the domestic textile industry is a key contributor to the US economy and a 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," Ms 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 the March 11 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.
Ms Glas pointed to the prevalence of "unethical cost reduction practices and predatory trade activities" in global textile production. She pointed to the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and the US Department of Labor's 2023 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, which included four of the countries under investigation, as evidence of these practices.
In the testimony, she alleged that while there is some cotton and textile production in India and Pakistan, upstream textile products of fibres, yarns, or fabrics is lacking in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia.
"As a result, China is able to gain backdoor access to the US market by shipping tens of billions of textile components to these intermediaries for final assembly. A garment may be labelled simply "Made in Bangladesh", but the bulk of its value - an estimated 70 per cent - is attributed to its components, which are most likely "Made in China"."
To counter the rising imports and protect the US textile industry, Mr Glas's recommendations included rejecting proposals to expand the generalised System of Preferences (GSP) to textiles and apparel, closing the De Minimis tariff loophole, and implementing effective penalties to deter unfair trade practices.
De minimis value is a minimum value defined by a country required to apply customs duty and tax rates on imported goods. Not every shipment is taxed on import, as many countries have a de minimis threshold under which shipments are cleared without incurring customs duties or taxes.
During the USITC hearing on Monday, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan countered queries about unfair trade practices.