United States tariffs on China-made imports have revitalized America’s struggling textile industry, which had suffered extensive layoffs due to decades of free trade.
“The private-label business was once a very strong, thriving business for us, and we’re starting to see that return because of duties and tariffs,” Ferrara told the Wall Street Journal.
“Over the last 25 years, apparel had the largest decrease among all manufacturing industries with a decrease of 85 percent,” a Bureau of Labor Statistics report from 2017 revealed. “Over that period, employment in textile mills decreased 76 percent.”
Jay Self, president of Greenwood Mills, told the Journal that his family-owned manufacturing business once made denim for Levi Strauss but as a result of free trade policies, they have closed seven manufacturing facilities since 1998 and switched to making military uniforms for the U.S. Armed Forces.
“As a company in this country, you can’t reasonably compete against” China, Self told the Journal. “They just undercut our prices.”
Though Biden has recently announced tariff hikes on Chinese imports, Trump has vowed to impose across-the-board tariffs on all foreign imports to protect American manufacturing and workers from low-wage countries.
“I will impose an across-the-board tariff on foreign-made goods,” Trump has said on the campaign trail. “I will also pass the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act. If China or any other country makes us pay a 100 or 200 percent tariff, we will make them pay a reciprocal tariff of 100 or 200 percent right back.”
