|
Textile Companies That Backed Cafta Now Say Its Aiding China
2009-06-17 19:30:29.58 GMT
By Mark Drajem
June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Some U.S. textile companies that
lobbied in support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement
now say the deal is hurting them and aiding Chinese competitors.
D. Harding Stowe, who hosted former President George W.
Bush at his textile plant in North Carolina as he stumped for
Cafta, says that lax enforcement by U.S. Customs on imports from
Central America pushed his 108-year-old company out of business.
“The textile industry provided the needed support to win
passage of Cafta, yet after Cafta passed, enforcement of our
customs laws grew weaker, not stronger,” Stowe said in written
testimony for a Small Business Committee hearing tomorrow.
Belmont, North Carolina-based R.L. Stowe Mills announced in
January that it will close.
Other textile makers made similar complaints in lobbying
visits to lawmakers this year, prompting the committee to hold
the hearing, according to Sarah Pierce, vice president for the
National Council of Textile Organizations.
Cafta ended most tariffs on more than $33 billion in goods
traded between the U.S. and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It was
supported by textile makers including Stowe because the accord
forced apparel makers in Central America to use U.S.-made yarn
or textiles in order to qualify for duty-free status.
“The promise of a unified Western Hemisphere business
strategy to better compete with Chinese goods was the driving
force behind our support for Cafta,” Stowe will say.
Instead, Chinese textile makers are making fraudulent
claims that their products are made in the U.S. to use Central
America as backdoor to gain duty free access to the U.S., Stowe
said in his written testimony.
Two Votes
Cafta was approved by just two votes in the U.S. House of
Representatives in July 2005 after North Carolina Republican
Robin Hayes, a textile heir, reversed his vote and gave the deal
a majority. After the vote, Hayes elicited a pledge by the Bush
administration to curb imports of apparel from China and boost
Customs enforcement.
Erlinda Byrd, a spokeswoman for Customs at the Department
of Homeland Security, referred questions about Cafta to a fact
sheet on textiles that didn’t mention the agreement.
Dan Baldwin, an assistant commissioner for Customs, is
scheduled to testify tomorrow.
--Editors: Jim O’Connell, Romaine Bostick.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Well welcome to the world of "free trade" Mr. CAFTA. Practice what you preach to the American worker decimated by "free trade". Pick yourself up by your boot straps. Compete. Stop whining. Bad bad protectionist!!