Recently elected US Trade Representative (USTR), Robert Lighthizer, has formally apprised US Congress that President Trump intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral free trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
According to Lighthizer, through these negotiations, the US seeks to support higher-paying jobs in the country and to grow the economy by improving opportunities to trade with Canada and Mexico. “USTR will now continue consultations with Congress and American stakeholders to create an agreement that advances the interests of America’s workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses,” stated Lighthizer.
US’ textile trade association National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) sent a press statement to Apparel Resources in which its President and CEO Auggie Tantillo informed, “The US textile industry welcomes President Trump’s decision to renegotiate NAFTA. It is in America’s national interest to modernize the agreement”
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It’s worth mentioning here that US’ textile and apparel exports value with NAFTA (including Mexico and Canada) in 2016 was US $ 11,097,296 whereas, through the same agreement it imported textile and apparels from Mexico and Canada worth US $ 7,648,170 last year.
“Let me be clear: NAFTA is vital to the prosperity of the US textile industry, and NCTO steadfastly supports continuing the agreement. With that said, NAFTA can be improved to incentivize more textile and apparel jobs and production in the United States, Canada, and Mexico,” added Tantillo.
He emphasized that eliminating loopholes that shift production to third-party countries like China and devoting more customs enforcement resources to stop illegal third-country transhipments are two changes that would make the agreement better. “We look forward to working with our industry partners throughout the NAFTA region to improve this agreement for all,” concluded Tantillo.
