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  1. #1
    Senior Member jp_48504's Avatar
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    Textile workers latest focus of CAFTA battle

    Winston Salem Journal

    Textile workers latest focus of CAFTA battle

    Jockey head urges employees to support the trade agreement
    By Richard Craver
    JOURNAL REPORTER
    Thursday, June 2, 2005



    Jose Garcia, who works on the sorting line in the distribution center for Jockey, handles 5,000 to 6,000 packages in an eight-hour shift. (Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer)

    COOLEEMEE

    The 550 employees at Jockey International Inc.'s operations in Davie County have been moved to the front line of the heated debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

    Ed Emma, the president and chief operating officer for Jockey, told the company's Cooleemee employees yesterday and Tuesday that congressional passage of the trade treaty with six Central American countries is critical to the company's hopes of competing against a Chinese textile juggernaut. The CAFTA countries are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

    Emma also encouraged Jockey's employees to voice their support for CAFTA to their congressional representatives, some of whom are firmly opposed to the treaty while others are on the fence. Committees in the U.S. Senate and House are expected to begin deliberations on CAFTA in mid-June.

    Emma said he is confident that the treaty will be approved.

    "Central America is an incredibly important market" for U.S. apparel and textile manufacturers because it is closer than China as a lower-cost source for production, Emma told reporters.

    "Without a strong CAFTA, it's going to be the United States and it's going to be China," he said.

    Emma said that his speeches, which were closed to the media, were aimed at helping the Jockey employees "understand the importance of CAFTA and the symbiotic relationships with our plants in the Central America area." Jockey declined to make employees available to the media.

    The Cooleemee textile plant produces fabrics for Jockey plants in Honduras, where products are sewn at a lower cost and then shipped to customers in the United States duty free. Jockey also has a distribution center in Cooleemee.

    Emma's speech is part of a grass-roots effort by supporters and opponents of CAFTA to persuade Triad textile workers of the beneficial or harmful aspects of the treaty.

    CAFTA has been a political hot potato for nearly two years for the Bush administration, with sugar on the forefront of the debate and textiles close behind.

    Supporters say that CAFTA would level the playing field by making 80 percent of U.S. consumer and industrial goods duty free immediately, as well as open markets for the U.S. service sector and promote economic and political stability in the six countries.

    Opponents say they are fearful that CAFTA could produce manufacturing-job losses similar to the North American Free Trade Agreement as U.S. companies chose to shift production to lower-cost plants in those countries. They said that there are loopholes in the agreement about how fabrics can be sourced, as well as which organizations would have jurisdiction over CAFTA disputes.

    They also discounted the potential economic effect of the treaty, saying that the combined market size of the six countries ($85 billion) is less than the combined market ($100.5 billion) of just the Triad and Triangle, according to the U.S. Business and Industry Council.

    "I have no doubt that certain companies are going to be able to use Central American labor to hold off the Chinese/Asian challenge in certain niche markets, especially those requiring rapid turnaround," said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow for the U.S. Business and Industry Council.

    "But they don't seem able to assimilate the lessons of the 1990s, which is that the Chinese and other Asian producers will do whatever it takes to preserve market share in the United States, whether it's manipulating their currencies or handing out production and export subsidies."

    Because the North Carolina textile industry is split on CAFTA, the Triad's congressional representatives have been besieged in recent weeks by lobbying efforts.

    Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole has voiced her support for CAFTA in the past week, while Republican Sen. Richard Burr said he has concerns that the treaty doesn't adequately protect North Carolina's agricultural and textile jobs.

    Amy Auth, the press secretary for Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, said that Foxx is planning to vote against CAFTA.

    "Rep. Foxx has heard from some folks in the district who want her to vote for CAFTA," Auth said. "She is listening to their arguments, but at this point she hasn't heard anything that will change her mind."

    Rep. Howard Coble, R-6th, is leaning against CAFTA but is maintaining "an open mind to hear from his constituency," said Robbie Boone, a legislative assistant for Coble.

    Rep. Mel Watt, D-12th, has not taken a position on CAFTA, said an official from his office.

    Emma said he knows that textile jobs have been lost in North Carolina as a result of free-trade policies, "and that's a major concern." He said that there are no guarantees that the approval of CAFTA would preserve U.S. manufacturing jobs.

    Analysts said that distribution jobs typically are less affected by lower-cost imports and offshore production.

    "What this agreement would allow is for the textile companies to have a very important market near here and it will help to ensure textile jobs," Emma said.

    * Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com

    This story can be found at: www.journalnow.com
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    With this agreement you workers for Jockey can kiss your jobs goodbye...as can millions and millions more Americans.

    RR
    The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. " - Lloyd Jones

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    as well as which organizations would have jurisdiction over CAFTA disputes
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    Senior Member jp_48504's Avatar
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    "Central America is an incredibly important market" for U.S. apparel and textile manufacturers because it is closer than China as a lower-cost source for production

    Goodbye American Jobs. I hope that the employees dont follow for this. They would be sending their jobs into Central America for that "lower-cost source for production"
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