Trade Agreements for Textiles

David Trumbull began his presentation with a statistic. In 1965, 95% of American clothing was made in the USA. By 2009, only 5% of American clothing was made in the USA. This substantial decrease was caused by changes in trade policies. After World War II, GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, was created to help international trade. In the mid-1980s, an idea was brought to Washington D.C. about a trade deal with the Caribbean. In the early 1990s, a similar idea was brought to Washington, but this time it would include more of North America; this was called NAFTA (North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement). In 2005, GATT was replaced with the World Trade Organization. The WTO allowed for imports without barriers or quotas. By 2009, only 22% of US fabrics were coming from Mexico and the Caribbean, 40% of imports were from China, and 8% from Vietnam. China is still importing to the US despite efforts by the current US Administration to remedy the situation.