U.S. Accused of Helping Foreign Apparel Firms

The American apparel industry, which proudly sews “Made in the U.S.A.” labels on its products, has been hurt by U.S. government policies that favor foreign competitors, a study said today.

The study, prepared by the Economic Policy Institute, concluded that the federal government has “given away” large portions of the U.S. apparel industry in pursuit of military or diplomatic goals.

“Having lost half of its domestic market, the U.S. apparel industry is now teetering between survival and extinction,” the study said. “It would not take much to push many of the remaining firms out of domestic production.”

With 1.6 million production workers, the U.S. textile and apparel industries employ more Americans than any other industry, including steel, autos and chemical refining combined.

The study said the setbacks suffered by the nation’s apparel industry in recent years have been a result of government policies that treat clothing makers as a “sunset industry,” or one that has fallen into a tailspin and can no longer compete with low-cost foreign labor.

Richard Rothstein, the report’s author, said the federal government has been “reluctant to enforce” agreements to control the growth of apparel imports from developing nations.

Rothstein also said the demands by the U.S. government and international banks that debtor nations repay their loans have led to depressed wages in these developing countries. This, in turn, results in lower-cost goods, which are exported to the United States.