Thursday, December 6, 2018

NCTO Endorses USMCA; Pledges to Lobby Congress to Adopt the Agreement

The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) board of directors has voted to endorse the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The United States, Canada and Mexico signed the USMCA on November 30.

"On behalf of the U.S. textile industry, thank you to President Trump, Ambassador Lighthizer and the entire U.S. 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 U.S. textile industry in many aspects and NCTO is pleased to endorse it," Moran added.

"NCTO was in continuous communication with U.S. 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," Moran finished as he noted U.S. textile-related exports to Canada and Mexico totaled a combined $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 NCTO President & CEO Auggie Tantillo

USMCA improvements over NAFTA include:

  • A standalone chapter for textile 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
  • Stronger rules for customs enforcement

No comments:

Post a Comment