In its on-going balancing act to draft legislation that both protects domestic manufacturing and promotes free trade, the Senate Finance Committee posted comments concerning several bills that could impact the outdoor industry. As expected, there were vocal opponents of this legislation, but there were also several allies of the industry who spoke up. The bills in question include duty suspension on knit performance pants, backpacks, performance footwear, and the elimination of all import quotas on performance outerwear pants.
Stephen Lamar Senior Vice President of American Apparel Footwear Association submitted comments in support of several pieces of legislation that was originally proposed by OIA, including Duty suspensions with respect to ski, snowboard, and other water-resistant pants and bills to remove such pants from any sort of U.S. import quotas as well as two bills to provide duty suspensions with respect to various backpacks, and a bill to extend trade benefits to certain tents imported into the United States.
Comments in opposition to the knit performance pants and backpack duty bills and the performance outerwear pants quota elimination bills were submitted by the National Council of Textile Organizations and the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition. London Bridge Trading Company, Ltd commented in opposition to the backpacks legislation.
In addition to these comments, at OIAs request, the International Trade Commission will begin a “technical advice” study to evaluate the performance apparel market. According to OIA, this study will look at the size of the market, the capacity of domestic apparel producers to manufacture performance apparel, and the impact of duties, quotas, and other trade barriers and other issues.
