“On behalf of the US textiles industry, thank you to President Trump, Ambassador Lighthizer and the entire US negotiating team for your hard work in getting USMCA done,” said NCTO Chairman Marty Moran, CEO of Jefferson, GA-based Buhler Quality Yarns Corp. “The new deal is better than NAFTA for the US textiles industry in many aspects and NCTO is pleased to endorse it.”

“NCTO was in continuous communication with US negotiators during USMCA talks, urging them to preserve and enhance the North American textile supply chain, and the deal reflects many of NCTO’s priorities,” concluded Moran as he noted US textile-related exports to Canada and Mexico totalled a combined US$ 11.8 billion in 2017.

“NCTO will begin educating Congress immediately on how USMCA is an improvement over NAFTA and assuming any implementing legislation is restricted to the terms of the agreement as negotiated, we will press for its passage in early 2019,” said Auggie Tantillo, NCTO President and CEO.

USMCA improvements over NAFTA include a standalone chapter for textiles and apparel (NAFTA does not have a separate chapter covering textile and apparel rules of origin); stronger rules of origin for sewing thread, pocketing, narrow elastics and certain coated fabrics; fixing the Kissell Amendment loophole; and stronger rules for customs enforcement.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) held a public hearing from 15-16 November in Washington, DC, as part of its investigation of the likely impact of the USMCA on the US economy.  Tantillo testified on the hearing’s second day, in more detail about how USMCA is an improvement to NAFTA.

www.ncto.org

Further reading

NCTO testifies on USMCA