Contact:
Cass
Johnson (202)
756-1422
For Immediate Release
Missy
Branson
(202)
756-1440 April
1, 2005
NCTO
Celebrates First Year of Operations
On April
1st, NCTO celebrated its first year of
operation with nearly one hundred active members
from across the textile
spectrum.
During
its first year of operation NCTO established
itself as the premier trade association for U.S.
textile interests with the most extensive and
comprehensive outreach of any textile trade
association to the US government, Capitol Hill,
the media and international
bodies.
Allen
Gant, the Chairman of NCTO, noted: “The road
ahead is not an easy one, but not an
insurmountable one either. The key to
the textile industry’s continued success is unity
in purpose and vision. It is the
goal of NCTO’s leadership and staff to ensure this
unity is maintained and utilized to the best
interest of our companies and the workers we
employ.”
During
the past twelve months, NCTO engaged in a number
of legislative, government and international
initiatives to support the domestic textile
industry:
International
Initiatives
NCTO was a founding member of
the Global Alliance for Fair Textile Trade (www.fairtextiletrade),
a coalition formed last year and now consisting of
96 trade groups from 52 countries that are
opposing
China’s take-over of world
textile and apparel trade. As a
founding member, NCTO co-organized three
international conferences on
China which were held in
Brussels,
Geneva and
Washington DC, and briefed dozens of
governments both in
Washington and
Geneva on the threat from
China and how it can be
addressed. As a
group, GAFTT was primarily responsible for the
emergence of a new bloc of countries that are
opposing
China’s efforts to monopolize
world textile and apparel trade in the post-quota
era.
Washington
Initiatives
On the
domestic front, NCTO organized two TEXTILE
UNITY events in Washington DC, including the largest
lobbying day to take place in
Washington in over 15 years. Over the
past year, NCTO staff and leadership made
more than 150 visits to members of Congress and
briefed the Congressional Textile Caucus on five
separate occasions.
NCTO also initiated a new
Congressional communication campaign with key
members of Congress now getting updates on
industry issues every two weeks. As a
result, communications between the textile
industry and Capitol Hill are better now than they
have been in over a decade.
NCTO outreach to the
Administration was the most extensive the industry
has had in many years. These
included multiple meetings between
NCTO leadership, the US Trade
Representative and senior White House staff.
NCTO Chairman Allen Gant was
named as a member of the ACTPN – Advisory
Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations -- the
first textile appointment to this committee in
more than ten years.
NCTO successes on the domestic
front included the defeat last session of a Haiti
bill that would have harmed industry interests,
successful application of the China textile
safeguard by having quotas re-imposed in four
textile and apparel categories that were removed
from quota in 2002, the government’s acceptance of
industry safeguard “threat petitions” on China,
increased funding for the U.S. Customs Service to
focus on textile enforcement, and the
expansion of textile support on the Hill to
include signatures from almost 175 Congressman and
Senators on a letter regarding the impending
threat from China.
Partnerships with
Industry
NCTO was
a lead player in organizing joint industry efforts
on behalf of the entire textile industry,
including working with the National Cotton Council
and the American Manufacturing Trade Action
Coalition to develop joint industry positions on
trade and other issues.
NCTO also worked diligently to
broaden industry outreach to other manufacturing
and labor groups and was a founding member of the
Sound Dollar Coalition and the China Currency
Coalition.
NCTO serves on the Executive
Committee of the China Currency Coalition and
participated with other major trade groups in
filing the first ever 301 petition on
China’s currency manipulation.
NCTO is also a founding member
of the CVD/NME Coalition to allow
U.S. companies to take subsidy
cases against
China and other non-market
economies.
The
Media
Regarding
the media, NCTO staff and leadership held
or participated in almost two dozen press
conferences and issued 52 press releases.
NCTO staff and leadership were
featured in textile news stories on CNN, Lou
Dobbs, MSNBC, ABC, Bloomberg News, NPR and in
hundreds of newspaper stories, including those in
the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall
Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Grassroots
Efforts
NCTO also established a new
PAC – TextilePAC – and developed a new grassroots
network focused on generating support and input at
the plant level of our member companies. This
network was utilized to deliver thousands of
letters and e-mails in support of successful
industry efforts regarding the acceptance of
threat petitions against
China by the
U.S. government. Over
the past year, NCTO also developed a website, a
comprehensive bi-weekly newsletter –
NCTO NEWS - and a textile news
information service, Textiles in the News.
In
terms of member outreach, NCTO exceeded its
membership goals for the year with nearly one
hundred charter members from across the yarn,
fabric, fiber and related industry support
sectors.
