Textile Industry Praises Trump China NME Decision, Urges Aggressive Trade Enforcement

WASHINGTON, DC — With President Donald Trump headed to Asia this November 3-14 to visit Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) praised the Trump administration’s recent determination reaffirming China’s non-market economy status for antidumping purposes and called for even more aggressive U.S. enforcement to crack down on unfair trade practices.

“The evidence could support no other decision,” said NCTO President & CEO Auggie Tantillo as NCTO concurred with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s exhaustively researched determination that China is still a non-market economy.

Tantillo added, “Properly defining China as a non-market economy simply confirms what every U.S. manufacturer already understands — China has a set of unfair and extraordinary advantages that allow them to displace investment, production and employment in our market.”

“We encourage President Trump to use his trip to Asia to reaffirm his commitment to enforcing America’s trade laws fairly, but resolutely,” Tantillo continued, pointing to public comments filed by NCTO[1] suggesting additional reasonable activities the U.S. government could undertake to improve trade enforcement, thereby creating more good jobs.

NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.

  • U.S. employment in the textile supply chain was 565,000 in 2016.
  • The value of shipments for U.S. textiles and apparel was $74.4 billion last year, a nearly 11% increase since 2009.
  • U.S. exports of fiber, textiles and apparel were $26.3 billion in 2016.
  • Capital expenditures for textile and apparel production totaled $2 billion in 2015, the last year for which data is available.
  • NCTO is also a member of Manufacturers for Trade Enforcement, a multi-industry coalition supporting the continued designation of China as a non-market economy.

[1] See page 12.

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