The US attire sector’s advice is available in response to a remark sought by the USTR for the 2026 Nationwide Commerce Estimate (NTE) Report on Overseas Commerce Boundaries.
AAFA commerce and transportation specialist Audrey Clark, who submitted the touch upon behalf of the affiliation, requires a non-stacking mannequin, that’s just like Japan and the EU.
Clark additionally pushed for the removing of tariffs on manufacturing inputs and equipment and for tariffs on free-trade-agreement (FTA) qualifying merchandise to be eradicated.
As well as, Clark stated that any new measures needs to be phased in with adequate lead time for enforcement businesses and provide chains to adapt.
“We imagine these reforms, paired with the administration’s sturdy enforcement posture, will assist guarantee a extra resilient, truthful, and forward-looking commerce surroundings for the US attire and footwear trade,” Clark said.
In her submission, Clark recognized a number of current tariff programmes that create uncertainty for sourcing and planning.
These embrace Part 301 tariffs on China and proposed Part 301 tariffs on Nicaragua, proposed Part 232 tariffs on private protecting tools and journey items handled as derivatives of metal and aluminium, and tariffs utilized beneath the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act (IEEPA) each globally and with further concentrating on of China, Canada, Mexico, India, and Brazil.
The submission highlighted the sector’s reliance on commerce. AAFA said that roughly 97% of garments and footwear purchased within the US are imported and that about 95% of shoppers who purchase garments and footwear dwell exterior US borders.
The commerce group stated limitations equivalent to tariffs, quotas, requirements and native necessities increase prices, scale back gross sales, trigger delays, and result in job losses.
Based on AAFA, an estimated 70–75% of the worth of US imported attire displays US worth added by means of design, advertising and marketing, compliance, logistics, and retail.
The affiliation stated the determine is probably going comparable for footwear and journey items and estimated roughly 3.6m US attire and footwear jobs in 2025 that rely upon these worth chains.
The submission additionally drew consideration to home tariff coverage, reporting 2024 trade-weighted common tariff charges of 14.9% for knit attire, 14.29% for woven attire, 12.25% for footwear, 8.7% for house textiles, and 13.85% for journey items, in contrast with an general common trade-weighted tariff price of about 2.35% in 2024.
AAFA stated duties collected on imports of attire, footwear, textiles and journey items surpassed $18.3bn in 2024 and that the trade represented about 4.78% of all US imports by worth whereas accounting for 25.70% of all duties collected by Customs.
