By Arthur Friedman
...Julia Hughes, president of the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel, said, “Sourcing is not a static business and the industry is always looking for opportunities and there are opportunities with CAFTA.”
Hughes said while China still represented 40 percent of U.S. imports of apparel in 2011, followed by Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia, Honduras was fifth, El Salvador was ninth and Guatemala was 15th, “so we have an opportunity to look at CAFTA as another sourcing destination.” Hughes said the CAFTA countries combined for 13 percent of all U.S. apparel imports last year. Apparel and textile shipments from China fell 12.7 percent in February to 1.6 billion square meter equivalents compared with a year earlier.
