TPP will provide new market access for Made-in-America goods and services, strong and enforceable labor standards and environmental commitments, groundbreaking new rules on state-owned enterprises, a robust and balanced intellectual property rights framework, and a thriving digital economy. It will also include commitments that will improve the transparency and consistency of the regulatory environment to make it easier for small- and medium-sized businesses to operate across the region. By opening these new markets to American products, TPP will help ensure that we are not left behind by our competitors in a vital region of the world.
The United States ships more than $1.9 billion in goods to TPP countries every day. In today’s highly competitive global marketplace, even small increases in a product’s cost due to tariffs or non-tariff barriers can mean the difference between success and failure for a business. That is why the United States is working to negotiate in TPP comprehensive and preferential access across an expansive duty-free trading region for the industrial goods, food and agriculture products, and textiles, which will allow our exporters to develop and expand their participation in the value chains of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Below is a small portion of the Summary of U.S. Objectives in regard to the apparel and textile industry.
TEXTILES
U.S. textile and apparel
manufacturers sold more than $10 billion worth of products to TPP countries in
2013, an increase of 5.4 percent from the previous year. Many U.S. yarns,
fabrics, and apparel currently face tariffs as high as 20 percent upon
entering some TPP countries. The goal of the TPP negotiations is to
remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to textile and apparel exports to enhance
the competitiveness of our producers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Specifically, in the TPP we
are seeking:
- Elimination of tariffs on textile and apparel exports to TPP countries;
- A “yarn forward” rule of origin, which requires
that textile and apparel products be made using U.S. or other TPP country
yarns and fabrics to qualify for the benefits of the agreement, so as to
ensure that non-qualifying textiles and apparel from non-TPP countries do
not enjoy the benefits reserved for TPP countries;
- A carefully crafted “short supply” list, which
would allow fabrics, yarns, and fibers that are not commercially available
in the United States or other TPP countries to be sourced from non-TPP
countries and used in the production of apparel in the TPP region without
losing duty preference;
- Strict enforcement provisions and customs
cooperation commitments that will provide for verification of claims of
origin or preferential treatment, and denial of preferential treatment or
entry for suspect goods if claims cannot be verified; and
- A textile specific safeguard mechanism that will
allow the United States and other TPP countries to re-impose tariffs on
certain goods if a surge in imports causes or threatens to cause serious
damage to domestic producers.
The above was retrieved from the TPP site July 9, 2014. Please see there site for updates or revisions http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
Some
people are for the TPP proposal and some are against. Opponents of the deal say that the TPP would
roll back the gains of almost every people’s movement, especially those
concerned with labor and the environment.
You can read the article at As
Trans-Pacific Partnership Falters, Opponents Go After Fence-Sitting Pols
Tokyo
and Washington are seeking a two-way trade deal, regarded as a key part of the
US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that is the center piece of Washington’s
push to increase its Asian presence. You
can read more at the news article from April 2014 at Japan,
US Face Off In Crucial Trade Negotiations.
Learn
more about issues
facing the apparel industry here on Apparel Search.
You can check the government information section or the customs relevant issues to learn more about importing and exporting relevant issues such as NAFTA and other trade agreements.
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