What’s happening in the global textile and apparel industry? Is apparel manufacturing really returning to the United States? And just how far does a t-shirt travel before it gets to the consumer? These were among the questions discussed at the University of Rhode Island’s Cotton Summit in September.

USFIA President Julia K. Hughes was as a featured speaker at the University of Rhode Island’s Cotton Summit, which was sponsored by the Importer Support Program of the Cotton Board and Cotton Incorporated. The event brought together over 180 attendees from the URI community and broader textile and apparel industry to talk about the global nature of cotton and the importance of embracing the global value chain.

Hughes spoke about textile and apparel trends especially for cotton apparel. She also shared with the students the perspective of the fashion industry (based on the benchmarking study released earlier this year) as well as USFIA’s position on key policy initiatives. You can download her presentation here. 

Also sharing the stage was Auggie Tantillo, President of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO). It’s no surprise that NCTO and USFIA do not agree on the best approaches in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, but the students clearly appreciated the chance to listen to the various views and to talk about the impact of trade policy on the industry. 

The highlight was the opportunity to meet students at URI and spend time looking at their research and updates on special projects. Hughes and Tantillo agreed on one thing—that the URI event was a great success. We may often be on opposite sides of the issues, but we’re glad to come together to talk about the broad challenges we all face and how we can work together for the greater good of the industry. 

L to R: USFIA's Julia K. Hughes, URI's Sheng Lu, and NCTO's Auggie Tantillo