AGOA Lobbyists Say GSP Should Not Cover All Apparel
The AGOA Action Coalition told the House Ways and Means Committee that it is staunchly against allowing apparel and textiles to be covered for all Generalized System of Preferences benefits program countries. The group, which publicized its Sept. 3 letter, argued that all the African clothing production nurtured by the duty-free access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act would be put out of business if Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines are granted duty-free access in apparel, as “margin-hungry sourcing managers” would choose these more competitive factories. They noted that AGOA participant country textile exports were $1.4 billion, compared with $4.9 billion from Indonesia.
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They said the fact that GSP excludes preferential treatment for apparel made the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and other Haiti preference programs possible, not just AGOA. These trade programs helped “selected trading partners to attract investment in their textile and clothing sectors in order to fight destabilizing poverty and grow as markets for US goods and services.”
They said that the only thing GSP modernization would do -- and they put modernization in scare quotes -- is provide a tax cut for U.S. apparel importers.