The scale of trade relations with Mexico is of great significance to the textile industry of the United States. In 2018, two-way trade in textiles and clothing amounted to US $12 billion 200 million. The US textile industry only exported $4 billion 700 million of yarn and fabric to Mexico. In, net export surplus amounted to $3 billion 800 million.

"We are very concerned about the impact of these proposed tariffs on the critical and integrated supply chain of the textile and apparel industry in the United States and Mexico," said NCTO president and chief executive officer Kim Glas. According to the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States benefited from the strong rules of origin requiring the use of regional yarns and fabrics. Therefore, the US industry invested a large amount of --228 billion in the period from 2006 to 2017 to help develop the fiber, yarn and fabric production in the United States.

"NCTO supports the adoption of the pending US Mexico Canada agreement (USMCA), because it is an important trade agreement that will strengthen the supply chain of the industry, representing about 20 billion US dollars in three party trade."

Glass continued, "increasing tariffs on clothing imports in Mexico, mainly involving US textile inputs, will seriously disrupt the industry and threaten employment opportunities on both sides of the border. Therefore, it will greatly accelerate the immigration problem that the government is seeking to solve.

"In addition, the increase in tariffs will bring significant competitive advantages to China, which accounts for about 38% of imports of clothing and textiles in the United States," she added. "In fact, if this growth goes forward, when the government tries to combat abuse of intellectual property rights and conduct decades of systematic trade reform that destroys the manufacturing sector of the United States, it will drive enterprises back to China. This proposal is extremely concerned about textile manufacturers in the United States, and we will make every effort to raise these concerns to the government and members of the conference. "

According to NCTO, Mexico and Canada are the two largest export markets in the US textile industry. In 2018, the United States and the two NAFTA trading partners jointly sold $3 billion 800 million in textiles and clothing surplus.