The Textile Industry

The U.S. textile industry has, over the last 20 years, been transformed from a small-scale, unintegrated, predominantly family-owned industry producing standardized fabrics and yarns in the Northeast to a large-scale, more concentrated, capitalintensive, technologically advanced, and internationally competitive industry located primarily in the Southeast. Pressure for this transformation came from a variety of sources. Primary among them was competition from foreign low-cost producers, initially of cotton textile products and later of man-made textile products. The other major source of pressure came from internal competition by domestic producers intent on introducing structural reforms and technical change. The industry's response to these foreign and domestic pressures took the form of both political and economic measures. The outcome of these measures is a healthier, more profitable, and more competitive textile industry. In view of the performance of the U.S. textile industry—excluding apparel—in world trade and its relative level of efficiency, further protection appears to be unjustified. Consequently, the United States should adopt a more flexible trading position and seek to split off textiles from apparel in the renewed Multifiber Arrangement (MFA).