The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has requested a probe into the export competitiveness of several burgeoning trade locales.
The growth of apparel supply chains in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan will be the subject of a new fact-finding investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC). The independent and nonpartisan federal agency will conduct a comparison of export data from 2013, 2018 and 2023 in order to analyze changing patterns, significant sourcing shifts and relative growth against other suppliers.
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USITC will deliver country-specific apparel industry profiles as a part of the report. Data about the each nation’s relative U.S. market share, apparel sector investments, vertical integration, labor productivity, input sourcing and duty-free access to the U.S. market will be included. The research will take into account industry structure, pricing and costs, product differentiation and reliability. USITC will analyze and review the key determinants of export competitiveness across the global apparel industry to contextualize the findings.
With U.S. apparel sourcing becoming more diversified, the commissioning of the report should shed light on an evolving trade landscape, according to National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) president and CEO Kim Glas. The trade group welcomes the information-gathering exercise and expects to see “robust” reporting emerge. “I don’t recall the last time there was a study related to these particular countries, which are all powerhouses in apparel and textile production,” she said.
Increasingly frayed trade ties with China, along with the growing strengths and benefits of other markets, have led companies to form new partnerships in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan in recent years. While the Biden Administration and USTR have been vocal supporters of forging stronger trade relationships outside of China, Glas believes more information is needed “to better understand the shifts in textile and apparel trade, and the scope of import penetration.”
“We’ve long called for these kinds of analyses to be done, especially for a lot of the Asian countries that are major importers into the United States,” she said. U.S. textile and apparel manufacturers compete against these growing markets on an “unbalanced economic playing field,” she added. Some markets involved in the report engage in predatory trade practices, while suppliers from certain countries have been cited for using forced labor and operating under subpar safety conditions or with limited social and environmental oversight.
“We’re hoping that as part of this analysis, and as part of the public comment period, these issues will come to light so we can better understand both the scope of their industry, and also some of the unfair competition,” Glas said.
Some past USITC analysis has spurred a public policy response, and that’s a possibility this time around. Findings surrounding input sourcing, for example, may reveal that some of the supply chains being investigated are contaminated by Xinjiang cotton. “This could inform enforcement of the UFLPA and de minimis policy moving forward,” Glas added. “It could inform how to strengthen our Western Hemisphere free trade agreements.”
USITC plans to hold a public hearing as a part of the investigative process on Mar. 7 in Washington, D.C. The report is slated to be submitted to USTR by by Aug. 30. Requests to appear at the hearing must be submitted by Feb. 21, and written submissions must be received by Mar. 22.
