By Kristi Ellis
“We are happy the new administration sees the benefits of free trade agreements and want to see it negotiate more agreements, but obviously our perspective would be to also link them together to maximize the benefits for American brands and retailers,” said Julia Hughes, president at the U.S. Fashion Industry Association. “We would hope that we can have a fresh discussion about what market access provisions for apparel products and other fashion products could look like in [a bilateral deal with Vietnam, for example]. Hopefully there would be some improvement, from our perspective.”
On NAFTA, Hughes said retailers and brands are concerned about any alternative, such as separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico.