In 2011, the US Trade Representative Office announced a number of changes to the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), or called “CAFTA-DR fixes”. The changes intend to expand export opportunities for the U.S. textile industry under the CAFTA-DR and encourage a vibrant textile and apparel supply chain in the Western Hemisphere. Among the changes of particular significance is the change clarifying that certain monofilament sewing thread is now required to originate or be produced in the United States or the CAFTA-DR region in order for goods to qualify for preferential tariff treatment. [You may think about within the territory of the CAFTA, which country actually has the capacity of making “thread”?] Before the fixes, some CAFTA-DR countries used cheaper threads from Asia which raised grave concerns by the textile manufacturers.
More technical details about the CAFTA-DR fixes can be found here.
PS–The Difference between Yarn and Thread:
- A thread is a type of yarn
- A thread is used for sewing while a yarn can be used for many purposes such as knitting, weaving, embroidering, and crocheting, and so on
- A thread is lighter in weight than a yarn in general
- While a thread is used to sew pieces of fabrics together, yarn is used to weave an altogether new fabric
FASH455 Global Apparel & Textile Trade and Sourcing 