It’s always great to kick off the new year on a good note.

This January, CustomFab USA cheered along with the American textile industry, celebrating a significant United States trade victory that will create new domestic jobs and opportunities in the coming decade.

USMCA

The triumph was the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which President Trump signed January 16 as manufacturers from across America excitedly watched. In attendance at the event were NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas and Parkdale Inc. Chairman and CEO Andy Warlick.

“[USMCA] includes protections for American-made fibers, yarns, and fabrics, boosting the U.S. textile industry by numbers that you won’t even believe. You will see them soon,” President Trump said upon signing the treaty (See video clip 16:40)

The USMCA is a long-awaited and welcome update to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect in 1994 and facilitated trade between the three North American countries.

President Trump signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement into law at the White House. He highlighted provisions in USMCA that include bringing back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and offering protections for intellectual property.

Last year the U.S. textile and apparel industry exported about $11.5 billion worth of goods to our neighbors.

BENEFITS

Now with USMCA, the domestic textile industry will enjoy additional trade benefits, allowing Made-in-America soft-goods companies like CustomFab USA to increase exports to Mexico and Canada while making it much harder for overseas companies to mislead consumers into thinking they’re buying American products.

To help uphold the integrity of the phrase “Made in the USA,” USMCA makes it easier for customs officers to enforce the rules of origin for textiles and apparel.

CLOSED LOOPHOLE

The agreement also requires the Department of Homeland Security to buy textile products manufactured with 100% U.S. materials, removing a loophole in the Kissell Amendment, a buy American law passed more than a decade ago.

Over the decades, CustomFab USA has weathered our share of challenges and threats from overseas competitors who minimize costs with low-worker wages and fewer regulations, and don’t always respect the exclusivity of intellectual property. Rather than off-shore production, we’ve spent the time sharpening our competitive advantage, investing in our technology and all-American workforce, which prides itself in integrity, ingenuity, and strict adherence to the industry’s highest standards.

MADE-IN-AMERICA WORKMANSHIP

We’re humbled by the fact that workers, including doctors, nurses, and first responders, rely on the high quality of our products to do what they do best— help other people. And now, with the passage of USMCA, it’s exciting to know that even more people in our neighboring countries of Mexico and Canada will have easier access to our Made-in-America workmanship.

LEARN MORE