The Textile Enforcement and Security Act of 2010 (TESA) is being touted as the first ever textile specific customs enforcement bill, and is also sponsored by North Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Walter Jones.
The press conference is being held at the House Triangle on the U.S. Capital Grounds at 9:45 a.m., with U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) and U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), as well as executives from Parkdale Mills of Gastonia and Unifi Inc. of Greensboro and the leaders of two non-profit trade advocacy organizations.
“It is the obligation of the government to protect American jobs and to grow the American economy,” said Kissell, a former textile worker and educator.
“We must enforce trade deals so other countries honor their end of those agreements, and we must protect the interests of American manufacturers to ensure their ability to compete in the global marketplace.”
He said TESA “provides much needed resources to crack down on textile fraud and to close loopholes which allow foreign companies to unfairly exploit trade deals.”
“After all the harm it has done in the past, our government must now do all it can do to protect American textile workers and manufacturing jobs,” Kissell said.
In a fact sheet about the legislation, the National Council of Textile Organizations noted there has been a sharp increase in illegal trafficking in the Central American Free Trade Zone.
“For example, last year, the government reported that nearly twice as much ‘U.S.’ combed cotton yarn was exported from the United States to the CAFTA region than was actually produced,” the fact sheet says. “In addition, a number of ‘phony companies’ have created Web sites purporting to produce U.S. yarns and fabrics for use in the CAFTA region but Customs has been unable to move effectively against them. Recent information from Mexico shows that up to a third of denim jeans which claim NAFTA origin may be made of Chinese fabric.”
This bill calls for an electronic verification program for yarn and fabric inputs in free trade agreements, an increase in the number of import specialists who deal with textile and apparel shipments and the establishment of a Department of Justice division to deal with trade enforcement issues.
It would also require the government to direct fines collected from import violations on textiles and apparel to pay for investigations and offer rewards for information related to them, and to publish the names of companies that intentionally violate the rules of textile and apparel trade agreements.
During testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade this week, NCTO President Cass Johnson said “there is no more important issue to the domestic textile industry than the integrity and enforcement of our trade agreements and obligations ...”
He shared the story of R.L. Stowe Mills, a company that operated in North Carolina for more than 100 years before closing its last plant last year.
“(CEO Harding Stowe) had watched his yarn export business be captured by companies that falsely claimed to be supplying U.S.-made yarn for apparel made in the CAFTA region,” Johnson testified. “He had identified the companies, identified the Pakistani yarn, sent information repeatedly to Customs and then was forced to stand back and watch his third-generation family business go under.”
In a commentary in Textile World, an industry trade publication, Washington Correspondent James Morrissey discussed another piece of legislation in the works by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa meant to “promote legitimate trade but crack down on illegal shipments into the United States.”
“They contend the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in recent years has concentrated most of its resources on the agency’s national security mission at the expense of trade,” he wrote.
According to the NCTO, about 42 percent of all duties collected by Customs and Border Protection are from textile imports, which have the highest fraud rankings of any industrial product.
“Due to the high-risk nature and the prevalence of fraud, Customs and Border Protection designated the textile industry as a Priority Trade Issue, yet the industry continues to witness serious fraud, particularly in the CAFTA and NAFTA regions,” the organization said.
Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.
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