Legislative Column – page 4 (pdf)
It All Begins With Yarn – page 6 (pdf)
Hosiery Courses Offer Basics To Producers, Retailers, Marketers – page 8 (pdf)
'One-Way Trade' Pact Opposed By Domestic Mills – page 10 (pdf)
Industry Briefs– page 12 (pdf)
Domestic hosiery manufacturers are raising concerns about trade agreements with southeast Asian and Pacific rim countries, again arguing that fairness is the issue.
The U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement known as KORUS as currently negotiated gives South Korea far more access to the $14.5 trillion U.S. market than the U.S. receives to the $1.3 trillion South Korean market, according to the American Manufacturing Trade Action Committee (AMTAC).
During a recent meeting in Chicago with U.S. trade negotiators, Darrell Frye, vice president of Harriss and Covington Hosiery Co. and Robert Chesson of Wigwam Mills argued the remaining core of hosiery companies making socks in the United States would face unfair competition under the proposed agreement.
Since the adoption of NAFTA almost 20 years ago, U.S. manufacturing companies have observed that tariffs and value-added taxes have put up barriers to U.S. exports. As a result of these barriers, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea between 2001 and 2010 reached $136 billion, AMTAC reports.
KORUS is the largest free trade agreement since NAFTA and it is the first negotiated with a southeast Asian industrial exporting power. It has been opposed by a diverse group of industries, among them textiles, automotive, and beef producers.
AMTAC also is leading the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership involving trade agreements with Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile and Peru. This is an example of an agreement that opens doors to major exporters to the U.S. market but who buy few U.S. goods in return. Such a pact is a “one-way trade deal”, the organization argues.
Frye and Chesson were particularly concerned about a proposed agreement with Vietnam and its non-free market economy. Already paying full duties, Vietnam is the second largest textile and apparel supplier to the U.S. (China is the largest). Vietnam also wants to ship duty-free goods coming into the country from China.
Frye, who heads up the Hosiery and Textiles Governmental Affairs Council, is considering staging a meeting for hosiery manufacturers for a presentation by AMTAC Executive Director Augustine (Auggie) Tantillo who is based in Washington DC and is a registered lobbyist. Clients include some of the nation’s leading industries including Milliken Inc. 
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