From July 24th through July 26th, USA-ITA participated in Texworld USA in New York City. This year, the event included a seminar series with expert discussions on sourcing and compliance best practices—and the experts included USA-ITA leadership, member companies including TigerTrade, WRAP, and KOTRA, and some of our friends from U.S. Customs & Border Protection and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Texworld USA, which took place at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is a sourcing show for apparel fabric buyers, product development specialists, designers, and merchandisers, to name a few. The seminar series highlighted the industry experts—which, of course, included many USA-ITA members.
The seminar series kicked off with Tanjila Islam, CEO of TigerTrade, an Associate Member of USA-ITA, discussing sourcing opportunities in Southeast Asia. She was joined by Ni Ah Made Marthini, Indonesia's Commercial Attache for Trade & Industry. The following is an excerpt from a blog post by TigerTrade's Online Marketing Specialist Matt Boyce:
A room full of U.S. and international sourcing professionals listened as Islam began discussing the opportunities and challenges they’ll find sourcing in the ASEAN region. Of the top ten U.S. apparel import countries, “three are found in Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand,” she said. The region is particularly flexible as it has the ability to “cater to both mass market and high-end sourcing.”
Some positive trends that Islam noted included the continued investment by the Vietnamese government in apparel and textiles manufacturing machinery and Indonesia’s investment in labor training programs. Also highlighted were the more than 2,000 textile manufacturers in Indonesia.
Next, Ibu Made of Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade & Industry discussed the benefits of sourcing apparel in Indonesia. Among the growing strengths of Indonesia is its workforce; “50% of Indonesia is under 30,” she said, denoting a productive and cost-competitive labor market. Although other countries in Southeast Asia have lower-reported labor costs, Ibu Made asserted “Indonesia is the most cost-competitive because factories in central Java are even more competitive than Jakarta area factories.”
On July 25th, USA-ITA President Julia K. Hughes moderated a session titled, “Everything You Wanted to Know About CAFTA, NAFTA, AGOA, Help, Etc. But Didn’t Know Who to Ask!” The session featured Gail Strickler, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Textiles, and Natalie Hanson, International Trade Specialist at the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Textile Policy Branch. Even the most experienced companies sometimes have questions about the complicated rules regulating U.S. apparel and home furnishing imports under Free Trade Agreements and other preference programs. The experts from USTR and CBP provided a detailed review of the rules, and how to guarantee that your imports qualify for duty-free benefits.
Strickler and Hanson started by showing the audience that there is an important opportunity to save money. Duties on most apparel ranges from 16 to 32 percent of the value of the garment. Yet, only 17 percent of U.S. apparel imports enter the U.S. duty-free and use these benefits. The speakers provided an easy-to-follow introduction to the rules and the documents required—and even more importantly, they encouraged companies to contact them directly with any questions. Strickler's presentation is available here and Hanson’s presentation is available here.
Some of the other sessions also included USA-ITA members. On July 24th, WWD reporter Arthur Friedman moderated a discussion titled, “Sourcing Hot Spots,” which featured Christopher Han, Textile Representative of the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), an Associate Member of USA-ITA, along with Gail Strickler. Finally, on July 25th, Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production’s (WRAP) Stuart Webster and Hong Mei spoke during a session titled, “How to Meet Buyers’ Compliance Requirements: What to Do & What Not to Do.”
Thanks to TigerTrade for contributing to this article. TigerTrade is an active and proud member of USA-ITA. TigerTrade is an online trusted partner network for global trade helping to support sourcing professionals connect to qualified manufacturers in Southeast Asia. TigerTrade works in the apparel, textiles, footwear, furniture, and home decor industries and is headquartered in New York City with regional offices in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.