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Office of Textiles and Apparel
Dedicated to increasing the international competitiveness of the U.S. fiber, textile, apparel, footwear, and travel goods industries

Trade News and Events

Announcements

  • 05/19/2023 – Climate Adaptation Export Competitiveness Request for Information: The International Trade Administration, in partnership with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, released a Request for Information on the Federal Register seeking public comments on opportunities and challenges for U.S. exporters of climate adaptation and resilience-related technologies and services. We welcome input from U.S. industry to help align U.S. trade promotion and trade policy activities to those sectors and markets that present the greatest opportunities for exporters of climate adaptation and resilience-related technologies and services, as well as to address relevant trade barriers and promote U.S. industry competitiveness. This FRN also supports the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaption and Resilience (PREPARE).  Please see additional details in the Federal Register announcement. Comments are requested no later than June 30, 2023

  • 05/04/2023 – March 2023 Textile and Apparel Import Report 

  • 2/07/2023 – The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) extends the exclusion of products from additional duties imposed under the Section 301 investigation of China’s acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. USTR has extended exclusions for 81 COVID related products through May 15, 2023 to allow for consideration of public comments regarding whether to further extend particular exclusions. The public docket for interested persons to submit comments will be open until March 7, 2023. For more details see Federal Register notice 88 FR 8027. USTR previously extended the exclusion of 352 products from additional duties through September 30, 2023. For more details see Federal Register notice 87 FR 78187.

  • 1/4/2023Limitation of Duty-Free Imports of Apparel Articles Assembled in Haiti Under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), as Amended by the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE): For the period December 20, 2022 through December 19, 2023, the annual quantitative limit of the Haiti HOPE Value-Added program is 412,506,163 square meters equivalent (SME).

  • 09/21/2022 - Federal Register Notice 87 FR 57681 on the Limitations on Duty and Quota-Free Imports of Apparel Articles Assembled in Beneficiary Sub-Saharan African Countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The new AGOA caps are for the one-year period from October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2023.

  • 08/15/2022 – The International Trade Administration (ITA) has developed an interactive training course to help U.S. firms and the public understand the laws and regulations that prevent goods made with forced labor from entering the United States. See the interactive training entitled Human Trafficking: Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains on ITA’s Forced Labor in Supply Chains webpage.

  • 08/05/2022 – The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public comments on matters relevant to specified trade areas that will help develop objectives and positions for enhanced engagement and subsequent negotiation under the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership. Written comments are due by September 16, 2022. See the Federal Register notice 87 FR 48060 for further details.

  • 07/21/2022 – In accordance with the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act, President Biden issued an executive order on June 27, 2022, increasing tariffs to 35 percent on certain products from Russia. The higher tariffs—including those on a number of textile, apparel, footwear, and travel goods products—are effective 30 days after the date of the order. See Presidential Proclamation 10420 for further details and a list of affected products.  

  • 06/14/2022 – The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released importer guidance to assist the trade community in preparing for the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) rebuttable presumption that goes into effect on June 21, 2022. The UFLPA requires CBP to apply a presumption that imports of all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, or by entities identified by the U.S. government on the UFLPA Entity List, are presumed to be made with forced labor and are prohibited from entry into the United States. See the UFPLA Operational Guidance for Importers on the CBP website

  • 04/07/2022 – The European Union (EU) will be putting forward several pieces of legislation in 2022 to achieve its circular economy transition. One initiative, the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI) will focus on “key product value chains” (including textiles) that the Commission sees as requiring “urgent, comprehensive and coordinated action” to jumpstart the transition to circularity. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles was published on March 30, 2022. For more information, see the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles webpage. For information on how U.S. businesses can engage with the EU on circular economy, see the Service-EU market intelligence article.

  • 03/15/2022 – Effective March 11, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has banned the export, reexport, and transfer (in country) of luxury goods to all end users in Russia and Belarus and to certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors located worldwide. This action is in response to Russia’s brutal, continuing invasion of Ukraine (as substantially enabled by Belarus) in flagrant violation of international law. Among the restricted products are various apparel, home textile, floor covering, tents/camping/boating, footwear, and travel goods products. For more details and a full list of products, see the Federal Register notice 87 FR 14785.

  • 2/11/2021 – Issuance of Temporary Waiver of CITA’s Procedures Requiring Receipt of Original Signed Submissions in Commercial Availability Proceedings.  Interested entities planning to file a commercial availability request should contact Laurie Mease (Laurie.Mease@trade.gov) for instructions before submitting any documents (either public or confidential versions) to CITA.

 

Past Announcements