NCTO on the Trans-Pacific trade agreement

Calling Vietnam and China “two nonmarket economies which have poured resources into their textile and apparel sectors” to the detriment of U.S. jobs and exports, Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), opposed including Vietnam in the proposed U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement. Since Vietnam was granted Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the U.S. and quotas were removed, Vietnamese exports to the U.S. have increased by 57 percent. At the same time, exports to geographic areas covered by the NAFTA and CAFTA agreements dropped by $4 billion. Orders for yarns and fabrics from North and Central American manufacturers evaporated, eliminating jobs in the U.S. Seventy-five percent of all U.S. textile exports go to free trade partners in NAFTA and CAFTA nations.