Posted on 07/06/2003 5:43:12 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Unrestricted trade with China could cause the Carolinas to lose two of every three remaining textile jobs in the next three years, according to a study released Wednesday by the U.S. industry's leading trade group.
The American Textile Manufacturers Institute projects North Carolina will lose 85,000 textile and apparel jobs between 2004 and 2006 -- more than any other state. South Carolina would be the third-hardest hit, with 42,000 job losses, according to the report.
The study is part of a campaign by ATMI and other textile trade groups to persuade the U.S. government to re-impose quotas on certain categories of textile and apparel from China. Government limits on imports of some textile products were lifted last year, and the remaining textile quotas are scheduled to be eliminated in 2005, although tariffs will remain.
By examining the presence of Chinese-made textile products in Japan and Australia, which have no quotas, ATMI forecasts that China will control 71 percent of the U.S. textile and apparel import market by 2006, up from 20 percent this year.
That will cause an estimated 630,000 layoffs nationally in an industry that employs about 1 million, according to the report. Other countries, including those in Latin America and Africa, will also see their textile industries shrivel as China claims a growing share, ATMI said.
In an interview last week with China Daily, Chinese officials said the U.S. textile industry's efforts to limit shipments of Chinese textiles are "groundless" and an abuse of international trading rules.
Between 1998 and 2002, textile and apparel imports to the United States increased 47 percent, to 38.3 billion square meters. During that time, Chinese imports nearly tripled, to 5 billion square meters.
Erik Autor, vice president of the National Retail Federation, said he thinks trading patterns will continue to shift overseas.
"Irrespective of what might happen on quotas or even with respect to China, job losses in the apparel industry in the United States will continue, mainly because it just isn't economic to make commodity apparel in the United States," he said.
Tony Mecia: (704) 358-5069; tmecia@charlotteobserver.com
Probably out of recognition of the installed base of Singer Sewing machines in American homes.
With a lack of job opportunities in the mass market, it's likely that some women will resort to custom sewing in their own homes to try to help make ends meet. There are already many women in our nation supplementing their incomes in this way: making prom gowns or wedding dresses for young ladies in their small communities. It's not a big market, but one that is unlikely to be displaced by imports.
That is key. Is it bad, good--I don't have the answer to that. I know that I have left the country once for opportunity and will probably leave again later this year or early next year. This time I will not be so quick to return.
My children will probably grow up internationally. I hope to instill in them the ability to go where the opportunities are.
In some ways that is very frightening. I imagine my kids telling stories of what mom says America used to be like.
An "enemy of the future"???? WTF are you talking about? Some niche industries remain niche industries. I would guess that the majority of displaced workers would not be able to (for a variety of reasons)move into any of the high tech industries even if they did become mainstream.
Even those that are able to retrain will probably see their jobs sent to Bangalore just like your "niche industries in the late 70's and early '80s."
Those displaced workers all got jobs in new industries, in new factories that were being built in america. Those workers went accross the street, the stagecoach drivers got jobs driving taxis, the wooden shingle makers got jobs at an american factory making asphalt shingles, the daisy wheel printer repairmen repaired new american printers, the coopers got jobs in american aluminum manufacturing, etc.
What is different today, is that no new factories are being created for new replacing industries. There is no place to go.
All new factories are in china, india, mexico, etc and they do not hire americans.
Todays americans who see their factory close, do not have a new american factory to go to, no one is building new amerian factories, and they wont either.
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