AAFA Submits Plan to Boost Apparel Exports
The American Apparel & Footwear Association, the trade group based in Arlington, Va., has been on a push to help the Obama administration with its plan to double U.S. exports by 2015.
A survey of its hundreds of members showed that only a small percentage of its domestic manufacturers export overseas to countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia and several European countries. Of the countries that do export, only 5 percent of their total revenues come from exports.
The types of goods exported are primarily fabric for apparel and raw materials for footwear. Those included soling and waterproof material for shoes, broad nylon, mod-acrylic fabric, coveralls, fire-resistant treated cotton knit fabric, fire-resistant treated viscose knit fabric, and Nomex knitted fabric for flame-retardant clothing.
The AAFA would like to see more of its members export and submitted a blueprint to the Department of Commerce to expand overseas apparel and footwear sales.
That 10-point plan was:
bull; Small- and medium-sized companies need to have access to more credit.
bull; The Obama administration should make the final push to complete free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
bull; The U.S. needs to open as many markets as possible by participating in initiatives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which promotes free trade among eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Those countries are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore and the United States.
bull; The country’s current free-trade agreements need to be up to date on technological developments, intellectual-property protections and new-market opportunities.
bull; The World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade negotiations, started in November 2001 to lower trade barriers around the world, need to be concluded.
bull; Countries around the world need to adhere to the international rules-based trading system.
bull; Just as the United States expects its trading partners to play by the rules, the United States must live up to the same standard.
bull; With so many U.S. companies designing and marketing their branded products in the United States but manufacturing them overseas, many of these products never come back to America before being sold. Financial markets need to help bankroll these products, too.
bull; The United States needs to keep access to the U.S. market open to imports, too. If we refuse to buy from others, others will refuse to buy from us.
bull; Setting a goal of doubling the export market is a great idea, but it limits the possibility of quadrupling our exports.—Deborah Belgum
