The United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) is dedicated to fashion made possible by global trade

The United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) works to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and to help fashion brands, retailers, and importers comply with regulations and source in cost-effective, efficient, and ethical ways.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a network of global connections, we engage with the Biden Administration, the U.S. Congress, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other governing agencies and bodies worldwide to support our members’ policy priorities and provide exclusive intelligence on how trade and customs policy will impact their businesses.

USFIA is committed to helping members make their voices heard to policymakers. Whether there are new legislative proposals, Executive Branch regulations, or enforcement actions, USFIA will represent the views of fashion brands and retailers. The need for advocacy has never been greater – whether in Washington DC, state capitals, or at international organizations.

Click here to download the full USFIA 2024 Advocacy Priorities White Paper or explore the various sections below using the left-hand navigation menu.

Our goal for 2024 remains to do what we can to make the world a better place forour customersour colleaguesour suppliers

USFIA Advocacy Priorities for 2024

USFIA is dedicated to supporting fashion made possible by global trade.

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Americans pay unnecessarily high taxes on everything we wear. While the average duty on manufactured products is 2 percent, tariffs on clothing and footwear, including clothing for children and babies, can be as high as 32 percent for clothing and 65 percent for footwear. The elimination of these regressive taxes on American families—and the resulting lower prices—would be the best economic stimulus program in recent history.

In 2024, one priority for USFIA and the fashion industry is to oppose the use of retaliatory tariffs in trade disputes, particularly retaliatory tariffs on consumer products such as apparel, footwear and accessories.

Retaliatory tariffs, including the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China, punish Americans more than they punish foreign countries and foreign suppliers. These tariffs lead to price increases for American families, and to counter-retaliation by our trading partners. These tariffs also impede American exports, particularly agriculture and services exports.

USFIA supports the negotiation of trade agreements to open markets and eliminate tariffs.

In the negotiation of all new trade agreements -- whether with the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom, or multilateral negotiations such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity -- we ask for immediate reciprocal elimination of all tariffs on textiles, apparel, footwear, and home textiles. We also support rules of origin in all new trade agreements that recognize 21st century global value chains for consumer products and limit the use of restrictive rules to reduce trade, limiting the value of these agreements for America’s most successful globally recognized brands. USFIA supports language in all trade agreements to encourage harmonization and mutual recognition of regulations.

Since free trade agreements are not always an option, USFIA supports trade programs to eliminate or reduce duties, including the Miscellaneous Tariff Bills and the expansion of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) to include apparel and footwear duty-free benefits for developing countries. We strongly support the immediate renewal of GSP, which expired on December 31st, 2020. We strongly support the early renewal of the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Haiti HELP and HOPE programs, which expire in 2025.

In addition to working to lower import taxes, USFIA works to eliminate non-tariff barriers, such as duplicative labeling requirements. USFIA also is actively engaged to support improvements in Customs trade facilitation globally.

Help Companies Source in Socially Compliant & Sustainable Ways

USFIA members are industry leaders in developing and maintaining business operations that are not only compliant with global standards, but also ethical—from the cotton field to the textile mill, to the apparel factory, to the retail store.

USFIA shares this story with the Administration, Congress, media, and consumers, educating stakeholders about how fashion brands and retailers are creating change on key issues including factory safety and compliance, environmental sustainability and stewardship, global worker wellbeing and human rights, elimination of forced and child labor, conflict minerals compliance, and chemical management. USFIA and our members are committed to be corporate leaders.

Ending Forced Labor

One issue for the fashion industry in 2024 is how to make progress to eliminate forced labor. USFIA and our members condemn the use of forced labor and understand that traceable supply chains are an important element in achieving ethical and compliant sourcing. Members have long-standing policies against forced labor and actively operate due diligence programs to assess forced labor risks in supply chains. We support practical and transparent enforcement guidelines to assist companies of every size to eliminate forced labor in their supply chains.

USFIA serves as the link between brands and retailers, manufacturers, governments, NGOs, and other organizations across the value chain committed to human and labor rights and sustainability. USFIA is committed to providing education and training on how to source in a cost-effective, efficient, and ethical way. It is a priority to work with CBP, DHS and the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to improve transparency, improve targeting and develop a joint approach with the fashion industry to focus on high-risk trade without stopping legitimate trade.

Retail and fashion brands support 42 million jobs—that’s 1 in 4 jobs in the United States.

They are industry leaders in developing and maintaining business operations that are not only compliant with global standards, but also ethical—from the cotton field to the textile mill, to the apparel factory, to the retail store.

USFIA shares this story with the Administration, Congress, media, and consumers, educating stakeholders about how fashion brands and retailers are creating change on key issues including factory safety and compliance, environmental sustainability and stewardship, global worker wellbeing and human rights, elimination of forced and child labor, conflict minerals compliance, and chemical management. USFIA and our members are committed to be corporate leaders.

Supply chain disruptions, delays and rising costs remain a concern in 2024.

USFIA works with industry coalitions, the Executive Branch, and the Congressional leadership to develop solutions to help solve these supply chain problems. Sometimes that means working on solutions before there are disruptions in the supply chain, such as support for the early negotiation of labor contracts at the ports. Today, this means advocacy to decision-makers as well as coordination with key supply chain providers to focus resources on successful solutions.

USFIA strongly supports engagement and the private-public partnership between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the fashion industry.

We applaud the role of the Center for Excellence & Expertise (CEE) for Apparel, Footwear and Textiles. We continue to work with Customs to address outstanding issues, including the full implementation of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE 2.0) and the requirements on the trade when entries involve Partner Government Agencies. In 2024, key issues include the 21st Century Customs Framework, enhanced Trusted Trader Programs, classification issues, and the ongoing implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

USFIA supports policies and agreements to encourage sourcing from developing countries.

One priority is expanding trade with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) countries, as well as with Haiti and with Nepal. USFIA works with the Administration, Congress, and USAID, as well as international organizations like the Geneva-based International Trade Centre, to promote and enhance these programs. These programs are a win-win from a U.S. policy perspective, enhancing the competitiveness of American companies in the sector and lowering prices for consumers while encouraging job growth in the some of the world’s neediest regions.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the institution that undergirds multilateral efforts to support expanding global trade and enforcing fair trading rules.

USFIA supports the work of the WTO and the consensus-building opportunities created by its major trading partners. We especially support the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which supports trade by focusing global resources to improve infrastructure and the administration of supply chains in developing countries.